It's a Wonderful Christmas Carol
by loveandwar007
Summary: It’s Christmas Eve, and Kim and Ron are in a huge fight. While Kim is visited by three spirits, Ron wishes he had never been born and gets a surprising visitor of his own. It’s a wacky holiday journey to reunite Team Possible before the night is out.
1. Twas the Night Before

A/N: Hello all! Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving! So I thought it would be kinda cool if we jumped right into the holiday season with this little tale that parodies two of my favorite Christmas films. Just a crazy idea I got back in September and have been developing ever since, so this could either mean I've hit a home run or contrived the weirdest combination EVER! Somehow I feel it's gonna land somewhere in the middle.

So between November 27th and December 24th, and with a total of 6 chapters, one of the craziest yet heartwarming Christmas fanfics starring our favorite young heroes will be unravelled. Hope you enjoy the first installment!

* * *

Chapter 1—'Twas the Night Before

"At last! World domination is within my evil grasp!" bellowed the blue-skinned mad scientist, waving his hands in triumph. He held up a cylindrical, see-through container, which appeared to contain nothing but empty air. "With the Translucent Nuclear Fusion of Uranium, I will create the ultimate weapons of mass destruction!"

"_There's _a mouthful," snickered the pale-faced woman wearing a green and black cat suit. "Ya think we could've stolen something with a shorter name?"

"Zip it, Shego! After tonight, the only name that will be of any importance will be 'Dr. Drakken, Supreme Ruler of the World'!" Drakken chortled in triumph. "And this time, Kim Possible, not even you or your buffoonish boyfriend can stop me!"

"This is _so _embarrassing," Kim Possible groaned as she sat bound tightly against her partner-slash-boyfriend, Ron Stoppable. For six years, the famous teen duo had fought crime around the world and faced a lot worse than the two villains before them. Kim was totally over getting captured. Heck, they were hardly even "teen" heroes anymore. Kim was eighteen, Ron had turned nineteen a few months earlier, and both had become freshman at the University of Colorado in September. Granted, it had become harder to accept missions once the college work had piled on, but she was still Kim Possible, the girl—young woman—who could do anything. And it wasn't long before she had gotten the call from Wade—Drakken and Shego were at it again, this time in a major government facility conveniently closed for the holidays.

The fact that Drakken would try something on Christmas Eve was beyond low, being that this was Kim's absolute favorite time of year. She had had the whole evening planned out: dinner with the family, singing Christmas carols, Snowman Hank, the annual skit, and later some intimate time with Ron in front of the fireplace. If they were lucky, they'd make it back in time for Snowman Hank—for Ron's sake.

"I am _not _missing Snowman Hank this year, Drakken!" Ron yelled as he struggled against the bindings. "Twenty-nine minutes and fifty-two seconds 'til it starts!"

"Ron, you own the DVD," Kim pointed out, fumbling in her utility belt for something to cut them free.

"No way, KP," Ron said grimly, his eyes narrowed. "I've watched Snowman Hank at 7:30 every Christmas Eve since we were four, and that's one tradition I'm not about to break!"

"I'm gonna _break_ your neck if you don't stop complaining and help me get us out of here!" Kim snapped as she failed to find her laser lipstick or any other helpful device in her belt. "Can't you use your monkey powers or something?"

"I still don't have full control over them yet," Ron said seriously. "If I try and use them right now, I might hurt you trying to break the ropes."

"Fair enough," Kim said with a scowl.

"Switchblade…in my belt…" Ron whispered out the corner of his mouth as Drakken paced close by.

Kim gritted her teeth to fight back a roar of frustration, "You could've told me that _earlier_! And since when do you carry a switchblade?"

"Since graduation; I didn't want to tell you 'cause I knew you'd freak," Ron replied. He giggled slightly as Kim's hands began to roam around his waist searching for the knife.

"Oh, grow up," Kim said with an eye roll as she flicked open the blade and began hacking at their bindings.

"So, Team Possible," said Drakken, his pacing ceasing as he stood with his back to them, "Perhaps you are wondering _why _I wanted the TNFU—"

"No, they're not wondering! And do _not _stop and tell them!" Shego cried out, grabbing her hair in frustration. "Are you _ever _gonna learn that when you start explaining your plan, they always—?"

"Escape?" Kim suggested slyly, the ropes falling away as she and Ron stood to face their opponents.

"_See_?!" Shego exclaimed to Drakken, who cowered as her plasma hands flared up. "And who's gotta clean up your mess every time?! _Me!_" With a fierce growl, she flung herself at Kim as they engaged in combat. Ron ran at Drakken and attempted to grab the cylinder as a tug-of-war ensued between them.

"Hope you don't mind if I end this quickly," Kim said, pinning Shego to the floor, "But Ron and I have got some Christmas Eve plans to get to."

"Ugh, I don't even wanna _know _what you guys have planned," Shego groaned, still not over the fact that the two least likely people in the world to ever end up together had _actually _ended up together. No sooner had she spoken that a familiar four-tone ring was heard coming from the pouch in Kim's belt. Leaping off of Shego, Kim grabbed her bluetooth headset from the pouch and slapped it on her ear.

"This better be good, Wade!" Kim yelled as she ran to avoid Shego's plasma blasts.

"Kim, it's Monique!" came the familiar voice of her best girlfriend.

"Monique? Uh, listen, this _really _isn't a good time," Kim said, trying her hardest to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"You're on a mission? On Christmas Eve?" Monique asked in disbelief.

"Don't ask, I'm totally tweaked about it," Kim said through gritted teeth, ducking behind a beam as Shego continued to pursue her.

"Well, you guys are coming to the party later, right?"

Kim gasped, mentally kicking herself. She had _completely _forgotten about Monique's Christmas party. "Uh…listen, Monique, I have plans with the Fam and—"

"So come afterward!" Monique encouraged her. "Come on, it's everyone's first chance to be together since college started."

"Look, I don't know how long this is gonna take!" Kim exclaimed as Shego scorched the beam hiding her from view. "We may be here awhile, and then everything with my folks and…Monique, I just don't think we're gonna make it."

"What?! Come on girl, you gotta come! Just for like an hour or—"

"If it were any other night we would, but we _can't, _alright?!" Kim shouted, no longer monitoring the aggravation in her voice. "Maybe we can get together some other time."

"It's the one night all your friends are here, Kim," Monique said in somber disappointment. "Ain't no time like the present."

And with that, she hung up, leaving Kim feeling a fresh mixture of irritation and guilt. She had no time to sort out her emotions, however, as Shego leapt in front of her and shoved her roughly against the wall.

"I got her!" Shego called over to Drakken. "Pack up the Nuclear Do-Hickey so we can get outta here!"

"Having difficulty with that at the moment," Drakken grunted as he attempted to pull the cylinder out of Ron's grip.

"Ron, whatever you do, do _not_ drop that container!" Kim cautioned him, trying to pry Shego's hands off of her. "We don't know how dangerous that chemical could be when it's exposed to the air."

"Will do!" Ron called back, inching ever so closely to the control booth the mad scientist had set up in the government building.

"Watch out for the controls, Dr. D!" Shego shouted. Kim took advantage of her distraction, kicking her in the stomach and sending her flying into the opposite wall.

"Shego, she's escaped!" Drakken called, throwing up his hands in defeat—and in doing so, releasing his hold on the cylinder. With a loud yelp, Ron fell backward onto the control booth, activating several switches at once. The cylinder flew from his hand and hit the floor with the resounding crash of breaking glass.

"Drakken, you idiot!" Shego cried, picking herself up form the ground, at the same time Kim screamed, "Ron, what did you _do?!"_

"Whoops," Ron and Drakken said at once, the floor beneath them beginning to rumble as the familiar self-destruction alarm began to sound.

"Geez, let's got outta here!" Shego yelled over the alarm. She grabbed Drakken as their henchmen lowered the ladder on their escape helicopter. Ron scrambled back onto his feet, he and Kim rushed to stop their archfoes from getting away, but, as usual, it was too late.

"Ta-ta for now, Kimmie!" Shego called out as they flew off, the foundations of the building beginning to give way. "Looks like your whole future's crumbling around you!"

Kim grabbed Ron by the arm and they jumped from one of the broken windows, each firing up their rocket boots so they could land safety on the sidewalk below. They hit the ground running as far from the government facility as possible, just as it erupted in an explosion of fire and smoke.

"Whoa," Ron said, "close call, huh KP?" He laughed nervously and looked over at Kim, who returned his gaze. And his girlfriend certainly found this sitch anything _but _funny…

* * *

"KP...? C'mon Kim, you can't stay mad at me all night."

"Oh yeah? Watch me."

Global Justice's jet had dropped them off directly in front of Kim's house, where the outside Christmas decorations were in full glow. Wrapping her coat tighter around herself, Kim walked towards the front door keeping her head bowed against the swirling snow—and her eyes averted from Ron, who ran behind to keep up with her.

"Okay, so I messed up on a mission," Ron said once they'd ducked inside, removing his jacket and hanging it on the rack. "How many times has _that _happened?"

"How many times have you caused an entire _government _research lab to collapse, costing hundreds of people their _jobs_, Ron?" Kim said angrily, roughly removing her coat and whirling around to face him. "What part of 'whatever you do, don't drop that container' didn't you understand?!"

"Drakken made me drop it, you saw it happen!" Ron defended.

"You could've kept a stronger grip on it; you _knew _how important it was that we kept the Translucent Nuclear Fusion of Uranium safe!" Kim went on. "I felt like a complete _idiot _in front of Dr. Director when I had to tell her what _you _did!"

"Look, I'm sorry, but Drakken was the one who—!"

"Kimmie? Ron? What's going on in here?" said Anne Possible as she came into view, holding a dish of mashed potatoes.

"We can hear you both yelling from in the kitchen," her husband James Possible added, setting down a bowl of cranberry sauce on the dining room table.

"Sorry," Kim said, flinging her scarf on a chair as she made up the stairs for her bedroom. "Mission went south—thanks to _Ron_."

"Not my _fault_!" Ron yelled up the stairs before heading into the bathroom to change out of his mission wear. Neither of their moods had improved once they had both changed into more casual attire and entered the kitchen, where the entire Possible clan, including Kim's Nana were helping prepare dinner.

"I got the turkey, Mrs. Dr. P.," Ron said, settling himself in front of the bird on the counter at one end of the kitchen. Kim deliberately moved to the opposite end and picked up a pan of green bean casserole, "And I'll take care of this."

"_You're _gonna _cook_?" Ron asked in disbelief, his eyebrows raised.

"Yes—I _can _do anything," Kim replied icily, sprinkling a few spices over the dish before her.

"Except cook," Ron muttered under his breath, and Kim shot him the Look she usually reserved just for Bonnie Rockwaller.

"Now Kimberly, Ronald please," Nana said calmly as the couple resumed their silent treatment. "It's Christmas Eve, and we should put all of our bad feelings for eachother aside—especially two young people who care about eachother as much as youboth do."

"Sorry Nana, but I'm not feeling very _caring _right now," Kim said sourly as she twirled the dial on the oven, then shoved the casserole inside and closed the door. "I'll go help the tweebs set the table," she announced, brushing past Ron and heading towards the dining room table, where Jim and Tim were having a swordfight with two of the butter knives. "Hey, cut it out!" she called to them as she began to pass the plates around each seat.

"So you're mad at Ron because he dropped a cylinder of Uranium?" Jim asked, setting a fork next to the plate she had just set down.

"Yep," Kim replied simply, moving in the other direction.

"And made the building explode, and now the chemical is destroyed and hundreds of people working for the government are unemployed now?" Tim added, setting a spoon and knife on the plate's other side.

"Yep," Kim answered still more simply, though felt a horrible pang in her stomach at having been reminded just how big of a blunder it was.

"And now he won't admit that it was his fault?" Jim continued, confronting his sister on her other side.

"What is this, twenty questions?!" Kim finally exclaimed, setting the remaining plates down with unnecessary force.

"Well, Ron's messed up before, hasn't he?"

"Not _this _bad," Kim said, her arms folded tightly across her chest.

"Still, he goes with you on all these missions and puts his life on the line," Jim said.

"And he's always had your back, no matter what," Tim added.

"If you remember all those times in the past—"

"—then you won't feel so bad about what's going on now."

"Okay look, what's going on between me and Ron _is between me and Ron_!" Kim said sharply. "And I don't need my brothers poking their noses into something that's none of their business!"

"We just wanted to help," Jim said, shrugging his shoulders half-heartedly.

"Wait a sec…do you smell smoke?" Kim asked, holding up a hand to silence them. No sooner had she spoken that the smoke detector began to beep loudly, and several gasps came from the kitchen.

"The casserole!" Anne cried out.

Kim swore under her breath and bolted into the kitchen, coughing as she inhaled the smoke emitting from the oven. Someone shoved her roughly out of the way—Kim seethed when she realized it was Ron—and pulled the pan out of the oven.

"Is it still…uh…edible?" Kim asked, staring at the brown and black mess that had once been a green bean casserole.

"What do you think?" Ron said, giving her a withering look. "Dang it, Kim…what temperature did you set oven at?"

"Well I figured we wanted it cooked quickly, so I, uh—"

"Set it on high?!" Ron finished for her, glancing at the dial and throwing up his hands in exasperation. "Why didn't you _ask _me which setting to cook it on?"

"Maybe 'cause I don't feel like _talking _to you right now," Kim answered quietly, but coldly. Her parents and Nana stood between them, looking from one to the other as if watching a tennis match.

"Yeah, well now I don't feel much like talking to you either," Ron said in a softer yet firmer voice. He made to leave the kitchen and head for the door when James stopped him.

"Ronald, Kimmie, this is supposed to be family occasion," he said, taking Ron by the shoulders. "And you _are_ family." Ron gave him a half smile, then headed into the dining room. Kim rolled her eyes and still refused to make eye contact with him.

"Kimberly Ann Possible, I do _not _like your attitude," James said firmly to his daughter. "Now you and Ronald are going to have a pleasant evening in each other's company, or so help me I will ground you for the rest of your Christmas break."

Kim sighed deeply, uncrossed her arms and slouched into the dining room, settling herself across from Ron. _If Dad had actually __been__ on that mission, _she thought, _he wouldn't be feeling so forgiving towards him…_

* * *

Ron had never felt so tense and uncomfortable eating a meal in his life. The adults had engaged in pleasant conversation, while he and Kim barely spoke to eachother. "Boy, I sure wish I had some green bean casserole to go with this stuffing right about now!" he had expressed loudly, causing Kim to glare at him, gripping her fork lethally. A few moments later, she had smoothly retaliated with, "I feel so sorry for all those poor people who won't have jobs to go back to after the holidays!" Jim and Tim had even stopped flicking peas at eachother to watch them, as if waiting for a huge blowout to occur. Ron almost wished she _had _yelled at him. Anything would be better than this cold silence she was giving him now.

It was almost midnight; the lights in the Possible living room were dimmed low. Nana had fallen asleep in the armchair, Jim and Tim were having a contest chugging down eggnog, and Kim, Ron, and her parents had been flipping the dial on the TV between _A Christmas Carol _and _It's a Wonderful Life._ Halfway through the films, Ron had taken a chance and slipped his arm around Kim's curved frame, and to his great relief, she hadn't pulled back. _Maybe things have cooled off now, _he thought as he watched Harry Bailey make a toast to his "big brother George…the richest man in town!" _Maybe I can have a civilized conversation with her now._

"Kim?" he said tentatively. She didn't look at him, she watched as her father changed the channel, and now Ebenezer Scrooge was laughing and dancing around his bedroom on Christmas morning, rejoicing at how "the Spirits did it all in one night!" Ron pulled his girlfriend a little closer, kissing her cheek tenderly. "I love you, Kim…" he said almost hopefully.

"Oh, do _not _play the 'I Love You' Card, Ron," Kim said sharply, speaking for the first time since dinner. "Just because we got a little cozy on the couch doesn't mean you're out of the woods yet."

"KP, Drakken's the one who made me drop the container, that's why the chemical's gone," Ron said, feeling his voice rising slightly.

"Oh sure, blame _Drakken_, that's the easy way out, isn't it?" Kim said in a louder tone as well. "Right after I told you not to drop the Uranium—lo and behold, you dropped it!"

"Hey, sometimes even the star running back has a butterfingers moment at a crucial point in the game—"

"Oh great, now you're giving me _football _metaphors—I don't believe this!" Kim had slid to the other end of the couch, staring Ron down and shaking her head. "Ron, _you_ messed up…and you messed up bad."

"Look who's talking, Miss-I-Can't-Handle-One-Dish-Out-Of-The-Entire-Christmas-Eve-Dinner!" Ron shouted, jumping up from the couch. James had begun to rise from his chair, but Anne placed a hand on his arm, giving him a look that said "let them work this out themselves."

"You're gonna rub _that _little mistake in my face after _your _big fiasco?!" Kim yelled, jumping up as well to face him. Now Jim and Tim had ceased their eggnog contest to look over at the heated discussion.

"You could've burned the house down if me and your folks hadn't been in the kitchen!" Ron retorted. "What is _with _you, Kim?! You've been touchy like this ever since Wade called us on this mission!"

"Well, I really didn't want to have to work Christmas Eve!"

"Well, for someone who loves Christmas so much, you sure are acting like a real Scrooge!"

"You know what?! I don't have to listen to this!" Kim finally screamed, and now everyone was awake and alert to what was going on. "You're in _my _house, and I can throw you out!"

"Fine, I was gonna leave anyways!" Ron yelled back. He stomped towards the door and grabbed his coat off the rack.

"Good! And you better write a sincere letter of apology to the head of the government facility!" Kim called out, following him towards the door.

"And you better go back to using the Easy-Bake Oven to make all your meals!" Ron shouted, flinging his scarf around his neck and wrenching the door open.

Kim let out a roar of frustration, "How come _every _time something goes wrong on a mission, it's always _you_?!"

"If it means that much to you, then fly solo!" Ron yelled over the howling wind. "I quit!"

"Fine, quit! I can do it all myself!"

"I wish I never even started going on these missions!"

"_I wish I never even met you!_"

It was the first statement that shocked both of them into silence. Kim placed a hand over her mouth, as if stunned that those words had actually left her lips. But no more so than Ron; her words had cut into him deeper than the Lotus Blade being plunged through his chest. He wrapped his scarf tighter around his face and headed down the snowy street—but not before Kim had seen the tears brimming in his eyes. She went back inside, slammed the door shut and pounded up the stairs to her bedroom, ignoring the looks of shock on her family's faces.

"Kimmie?" Anne's voice called as she watched her daughter ascend the stairs.

"Just leave me alone!" Kim screamed down the stairs as she reached the landing, then whirled around to enter her loft room.

"So…was that a break-up?" she heard one of the tweebs ask.

"Tim, quiet!" Anne scolded him, but Kim didn't miss the trace of sadness in her voice.

* * *

Ron quietly opened the front door to his house and slipped inside, removing his jacket and scarf and heading into the living room. He stopped however, when saw that his parents were gathered around the Menorah, lighting one of the candles and singing a prayer softly in Hebrew. Maybe it was because what Kim had said to him was still fresh in his mind, or that he rarely saw his parents together and peaceful like this, but the sight before Ron caused the tears he had been holding back to spill down his cheeks.

"Hey there, son," his father said cheerfully, after he and his wife had finished their Hanukkah ritual. "How was Christmas Eve at Kim's?"

Ron cleared his throat, "Well, it was…uh…actually, I'm _really_ tired. I think I'm just gonna turn in for the night."

"Ronnie, what's wrong?" Mrs. Stoppable asked, when she noticed her son had been crying. "Is everything alright?"

Ron swiped hastily at his face and forced a smile, "Yeah, mom—couldn't be better. I'll, um…I'll see you in the morning."

"Alright then, goodnight sweetheart," his mother said, though still didn't look entirely convinced that everything was fine. Ron slumped up two flights of stairs to the attic, where Rufus squeaked happily upon his arrival. But as he watched his master throw himself despairingly onto his bed, clutching his pillow in his arms, the little mole rat knew that something bad must have happened.

"I blew it, Rufus," Ron said quietly, "I really screwed up on that mission, and now Kim hates me. She wishes she never even _met _me."

"Aw," Rufus squeaked sadly, patting his master's hand consolingly.

"Naw Rufus, I think she meant it," Ron sighed. "I mean, she's right. I always screw up at the _worst _possible times on these missions, and it's holding her back!" He got up and walked over to his chest of drawers. Opening up the top drawer and placing his switchblade inside, he found a small, green velvet box next to it. He smiled, pulling it out of the drawer and opening it up. Inside was a gold ring with tiny emeralds embedded all around the band…the jeweler had called it a promise ring.

"I was gonna give this to her tomorrow, buddy," Ron said. "I was gonna tell her I wanted to be with her for the rest of my life." He took the ring out of its box and held it between his thumb and index finger. Swallowing back the hard lump forming in his throat, he let it fall into his palm and closed his fingers around it. "But I guess that's not gonna happen now…"

* * *

Kim tossed and turned for what felt like the eightieth time in the last hour, but she still couldn't get to sleep. Years ago on Christmas Eve, this would have been because she wanted to see Santa Claus fly up to the roof with his reindeer and sleigh. This time, it was an entirely different matter—and not a happy one at that. She still couldn't get this awful evening out of her head: the mission debacle, blowing off Monique and her party, burning the casserole, and practically breaking up with Ron…all on what should have been the happiest of evenings.

Why couldn't Ron have just admitted that he screwed up? She supposed it was because of what happened at graduation. Since the Lorwardian invasion and Ron defeating them, she had begun to see him as her equal, her _partner _and not just the sidekick or the distraction, or worse the "loser" or the "buffoon." But sometimes heroes make mistakes…and Ron had made one heck of one. He had needed to hear it from her, and if she had gotten a bit harsh with him, then so be it.

But to say that she wished she'd never _met _him? Had she really meant that when she said it? Could she even imagine a life without Ron…?

* * *

"You know, she probably would've had a better life without me," Ron said half to himself. "She said she could do the missions all by herself—and she's right! She could! She can do _anything_! Why does she even bother to call me to go with her on every mission? What did I ever do, except get in her way?! In _everyone's _way! I'm still the loser, the outcast—the _buffoon_!" Still clutching the ring in his hand, he opened the attic window wide and stuck his head out into the cold night air…

* * *

_I wish I never even met you!_

The words rang loudly in Kim's head as she finally dozed off…the digital clock on her nightstand changed at that moment from 12:59 to 1:00…

* * *

"This whole world would be better…if I hadn't been born at all."

Ron threw his arm holding the ring back and prepared to launch it into the winter air, when a deep, commanding, and all-too familiar voice stopped him:

"You sure you wanna do that, Stoppable?"

* * *

A/N: Please read and review!


	2. Lights of Long Ago

A/N: Between November 27th and December 24th, this crazy spin on two holiday classics will be unveiled. Here's Chapter 2. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 2—Lights of Long Ago

"_Hicka-bicka-boo!_"

If that had not awakened Kim from her slumber, the blinding white light that filled the room a second later sure did. She ripped the covers off her body and sat up in bed with a growl, "_Tweebs!_" As if on cue, her twin brothers came soaring in through her bedroom window, surrounded by smoke and wind. They floated downward and landed calmly at the foot of her bed, wearing identical grins.

"What do you _want_?!" Kim spat out. "I thought I made it pretty clear downstairs that I wanted to be left alone! Not to mention normal people are usually _sleeping _right about now!"

"Yeah, _normal _people are—" began one twin.

"—but as you can see, we're not normal people," finished the other.

"Yeah, no kidding," Kim said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and moving towards her brothers to shove them out of the room. "Skipping two grades into freshman year, what a load of bull—"

She stopped with a gasp. For when she grabbed one of them by the shoulder, she felt nothing but empty air as her hand went right through him. She recoiled her hand as if she had been burned, stumbling backward away from them and sitting back on the bed. The grins never left the boys' faces.

"Okay…what's the sitch?" Kim asked slowly. She glanced behind their backs, "You flew in here without rocket packs, and my hand just went _through _your shoulder!"

"As you can probably guess, we're not really Jim and Tim Possible," one of them said.

"We're _actually _the Ghosts of Christmas Past!" the other concluded with a proud nod.

"Oh no…oooohhh no," Kim said, shaking her head in disbelief, pressing her palms against her eyes. "No, this is just like that _book_…" She pinched herself as hard as she could, inhaling sharply from the slight pain—but not waking up from what she had concluded could only be a dream.

"You about done?" the twin that resembled Jim asked, raising his eyebrows.

"'Cause we've got a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in," added the other spirit.

_Easy there, Possible, _Kim said, taking a long, slow breath. _Just play along, and if anything happens, remember you know sixteen styles of kung-fu…which aren't gonna be much __help__ against ghosts you can't even touch! _She got up off the bed and looked down at the two spirits again, "Okay, '_ghosts'_…um…why are you in my bedroom?"

"We couldn't help watching your little blowout this evening—"

"—with the guy you're supposed to be in love with—"

"—and we just figured that you—"

"—might need to be reminded—"

"—of how important Ron Stoppable has been in your life."

"Ooookay, then," Kim nodded, looking from one to the other. They sure were _acting _like the tweebs. Their gazes moved from her to the open window.

"You better bundle up, Kim—"

"Yeah, it sure is cold out there."

"Wait, where are we going?" Kim asked, reaching for her pink bathrobe and tying it around herself.

"We're just gonna have a little look-see—"

"—at some of the Christmases—"

"—you and Ron have spent together."

"Do we have to?" Kim said with a wide yawn as she put on her slippers. "I'm really wiped out from—"

"_We _don't have to," Spirit-Jim said, taking her by one arm and leading her to the window.

"_You _do," Tim finished, securing his hold on her other arm. Before Kim knew it, she was lifted off her feet, levitating several feet off the floor. And with another shout of "Hicka-bicka-boo!", Kim and the twin spirits soared back through the open window and out into the late winter night.

* * *

"You sure you wanna do that, Stoppable?"

Ron, who had been in the process of chucking Kim's ring out the window, banged his head on the window frame as he yelped and whirled around. He backed away from his bed when he heard that intimidating and all-too familiar voice. Sitting casually on top of his comforter was a person he had hoped he'd never run into again post high school graduation…Mr. Steve Barkin.

"Mr. B!" Ron exclaimed, rubbing the lump that had begun to form on the back of his head. "Whaa—I—how d'you get in my house?! What are you doing here?!" He gasped and gripped the sides of his head, "Oooh, no…I've heard about this happening! Did I forget to turn in a paper last year, so I really didn't graduate and now I have to repeat senior year?! _What kind of sick and wrong torture is this?!_"

"Relax, Ron, you didn't forget anything from last year," the militant figure said, watching Ron begin to hyperventilate. "Well—that is, if you did, _I _sure wouldn't know about it."

"Sure you would, you've been my—" Ron thought this over quickly—"_only _teacher for the past four years. Trust me, you'd know."

"I haven't been your teacher for the past four years, Ron, because I'm not really Mr. Barkin," the muscular man on the bed said matter-of-factly. "I've been sent down here to you from…well, ya know." He jerked his head upward.

"Dude, you look like Mr. Barkin, you talk like Barkin, you—" He stopped and turned his head to look at him. "Did you just call me 'Ron'? The Mr. B I know always called me 'Stoppable', even before I made the football team."

"Guess there is a difference between me and this Barkin then." The man cleared his throat, "I'm Steve, AS2—meaning Angel Second Class. I'm 172 years old and in command to the Big Guy above," He gestured accordingly. "And you're gonna help me earn my wings."

"Allllll—righty then," Ron said cautiously, sitting on the bed next to him. This was all beginning to sound _vaguely _familiar…kind of like that movie he watched over at Kim's house. He tentatively reached out a hand and poked the well-built man in the arm repeatedly. "Hey, you liar, my hand won't go through you! If you were a ghost, my hand would go into you, just like in those movies!"

"Who said anything about ghosts?" Steve asked, shrugging Ron's hand off of him and folding his arms across his chest. "I'm an _angel_…your guardian angel to be exact."

"I have a guardian angel?" Ron asked, raising his eyebrows until they disappeared into his blonde bangs.

"Yep, everybody's got one, but very few actually get to meet theirs in person before they—er—buy the farm, or whatever you people say," Steve said, before getting up to survey the young man next to him closely. "I've been watching you, kid. I watched you the day you were born—your mom was in labor for twenty-two hours and finally had to have a C-section before you came squirming out. I saw you take your first steps, get your first tricycle, and I watched you go to Pre-K for the first time and meet a very special little girl." Ron looked up at him in surprise, and Steve nodded, "Yeah, Ron…I know about her, too." He cocked his head to one side as he looked down at Ron's right fist. "Aren't you gonna put that in a safe place?"

Ron opened his fist, where the gold band with emeralds around it still lay. "What's the point?" he asked, slipping the ring into his pocket. "That same little girl I met in Pre-K wished tonight that that she never met _me_, and frankly I don't blame her."

"Oh come on, kid, I've been watching you two all your lives and you've been in plenty of fights," Steve said, patting Ron on the shoulder.

"And I've also messed up plenty of times on the missions," Ron added, crossing his arms as if he were cold. "Too many times, actually. You know if it wasn't for me, Kim would probably be a full-time agent for Global Justice by now, working with the best of the best instead of an idiot like me. She'd probably be going to college halfway around the world instead of here, which she only did because of me." He stared out the window, "The sky's the limit for Kim…she can do anything…and the only thing I've ever done is drag her down."

"You know that's not true," Steve said in a voice so stern that for a moment, Ron did believe Mr. Barkin was in the room with him. "You just don't realize all that you've done for her. If it hadn't been for you—"

"If it hadn't been for me, Kim—_everyone _would have been a lot better off!" Ron finally shouted out, getting up from the bed with his back turned to Steve. Staring outside at the swirling snow, he muttered, "Guess things would be better if I hadn't been born at all…"

"Come again?" Steve asked from behind him.

"I said I wish I'd never been born!" Ron yelled in exasperation.

"Oh geez, you teenagers can be so melodramatic it's…" Steve trailed off, a faraway look crossing his face. "Wait a minute…that's not a bad idea…that's a great idea, actually…" He straightened up and marched over to where Ron stood, "So you sure about that? Is that what you really want?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," Ron mumbled under his breath.

"Okay then," Steve said. He opened his arms wide, "You got your wish. You've never been born…"

And with a great, freezing gust of wind from the window, the room went pitch dark.

* * *

"Whoo, that was fun, huh Kim?" the twin Ghosts of Christmas Past asked Kim, shortly after they had flown into an open, brightly lit window. With a sufficient lack of grace, the ghosts landed Kim on the wooden floor where she clumsily fell to her knees. She sat up, pushing her long hair out of her face.

"If you tweebs ever make me do that again, I'll—!"

"_We're not the tweebs!_"

"Oh, sorry," Kim said, brushing herself off. Once she had taken in her surroundings, she realized that they were in what looked like a very small classroom. Young children of about four or five were running around playing with dolls, trucks, finger paints, or blocks while a teacher monitored them patiently. "What are we doing at the preschool?"

"Ah, preschool," Jim said with a dramatic sigh, "A time of innocence—"

"—a time of joy and play—" Tim added.

"—a time for naps—"

"—a time when the foundations of friendship are laid," Tim finished, just as he pointed over to the block area. Kim inhaled sharply as she saw a very young girl, her long auburn hair in pigtails, passing blocks to a little boy with blonde hair, big ears and a few freckles on each cheek.

"Oh my gosh…that's _us_."

"Yep," the ghosts said together. Kim watched as Ron held the blocks steady while her younger self put the last of the colored pieces of wood on top. "You guys were a team from the very beginning."

"We always have been," Kim said quietly, as her gaze fixated on four-year-old Ron Stoppable. He was so small, his ears almost too big for his head, his face round and cherubic, all features that puberty had eventually taken from him and altered considerably. But his eyes, his deep, chocolate brown eyes, now dancing with excitement at their finished block tower—after all these years, they were the one thing about him that had never changed. It was beyond awk-weird to believe that the eyes of that little boy were the same brown eyes that captivated her heart the night of junior prom; the same eyes that could make her laugh or bring her to tears with a single look, that forced her to come out and reveal her deepest secrets. After all these years, Kim could only think of two instances where Ron's eyes had lost that sparkle. Once was almost two years ago, when she had been seeing Eric exclusively before discovering who he really was…and the other was only mere hours ago, when she had said she wished they had never met…

"Boy, good thing Ron can't see you looking at him like that—" Jim began, chuckling.

"—or he'd be totally creeped out!" Tim finished, laughing as well. Kim blinked and looked back over at the sniggering ghosts, blushing as red as her hair. How long had she been staring? Jim hastily composed himself and led Kim closer to where the two children were playing.

"I'm the king of the world!" young Ron yelled triumphantly, standing on top of the block tower with his arms in the air. His moment of euphoria was short-lived as the blocks crumbled beneath his weight, and he jumped off with a yelp as the blocks came tumbling down. Kim rolled her eyes and snorted. _Sure it's cute now, but wait 'til he makes an entire building __explode__…_ She looked and saw that her younger self, rather than get upset, was laughing as she helped her friend up from the floor. "Ah well, it was fun while it lasted."

"I'll say," said young Kim, pushing the blocks away and sitting up on her knees. "I can't _wait _until next week—Christmas, you know! Daddy puts up the tree and we sing carols, and then Nana and Grandpa come over!"

Kim smiled reminiscently, "Grandpa used to read to us from a collection of short Christmas stories. Some were sad, but some were also really funny. And Grandpa would always do the voices of the characters." She sighed, "It used to be my favorite part of the whole evening."

"But your Grandpa died suddenly when you were seven," Tim said somberly, and Kim hung her head and nodded silently.

"And Ron came to the funeral and sat with you," Jim added.

"I think it was the first time he ever saw me cry," Kim said with a soft laugh. "It probably freaked him out a little."

"But he still stayed right beside you," Jim said nodding, "Got your back, no matter what."

"So what do your mommy and daddy do for Christmas?" young Kim asked her friend excitedly, bouncing up and down on her heels now.

"It's not Christmas at my house, Daddy calls it 'Ha…noo…ka'," Ron said, building a mini tower with a few blocks in front of him. "We have this shiny thing with eight candles in it. Every night, Daddy lights one of them and he and mommy sing some funny words."

"Wow, that's _weird_," young Kim said, wrinkling her nose.

"I know—but then I get a _present_!" Ron said excitedly. "I think I got eight presents last year, but I'm not sure. Someday I hope I can light the candle just like my dad."

Kim couldn't help smiling, as she recalled their first Christmas/Hanukkah together as a couple, watching Ron light the Menorah. She had told Ron he sounded "so sexy" when he prayed in Hebrew, emitting a blush from his pale cheeks.

"Cool!" young Kim exclaimed. "I hope _I _get eight presents this year!"

"Wanna come over for 'Hanooka' this year?" Ron asked, and Kim's face lit up.

"Yeah! And you could come over for Christmas Eve and watch Snowman Hank with me!"

"Who's Snowman Hank?" Ron asked, clearly getting excited.

"He's on only the bestest Christmas cartoon _ever_!" little Kim exclaimed. "You're gonna love it!"

"You guys became pretty close over the years," Jim said as the voices of the children began to fade out.

"Especially over the holidays," Tim added. "Every year since then, you'd go over to Ron's for Hanukkah and he'd come over for Christmas."

"He can't get enough of Snowman Hank, that's for sure," Kim said with a smirk.

"But even though you guys celebrated differently, it didn't matter," Jim said. "If anything, it made you better friends than ever."

"Well, wish we could stick around, but we've got a _very _interesting Christmas to show you next—"

"—when you guys were a little older—"

"—and a little closer." Taking her by the arms, they stepped back through the open window and out into the night…

* * *

"What the heck did you do, Barkin?!" Ron shouted shrilly, his arms stretched out in front of him as he attempted to feel his way around in the now dark attic.

The angel sighed, "I'm not Barkin, I'm—"

"Yeah sorry, _Steve_," Ron said hastily. He had barely taken three steps when he tripped and completely wiped out over what appeared to be a cardboard box. After straightening up, he walked head long into a wall of boxes, which thankfully did not tumble over. _What in the name of Snowman Hank is going on?_

"Well, you're probably wondering what all these boxes are doing where your room was," Steve's voice came from the darkness.

"Yeah—yeah, that thought did cross my mind," Ron said sarcastically, picking himself up from the floor a second time, just as a light from a flashlight came from Steve's direction.

"Might need one of these," Steve said, handing Ron the conjured flashlight.

"Okay, so what are all these boxes doing in my room?" Ron asked, thoroughly annoyed.

"It's because you were never born," Steve said simply. "You don't exist, no identity, no life, no government building explosion to worry about—"

"Yeah, yeah okay, I don't exist, which makes a lot of sense since I'm _standing right here_!" Ron yelled. "C'mon Rufus, let's get outta here buddy."

Silence.

"Rufus? _Rufus?!_"

"He's not here," Steve said still more simply. At that, Ron ceased his frantic search and rounded on the angel, glaring at him.

"This isn't funny, dude," he said icily. "Where is Rufus?"

"Well, since you were never born, you never purchased him from Smarty Mart," Steve explained. "He's probably living with a different owner—if he's even still alive at all."

Completely stunned, Ron sat down on one of the boxes. No Rufus, and probably not even alive anymore. This hit him hard; Rufus was his special little buddy, his Naco eating partner, his pal when everyone else was too busy to hang out. The little mole rat had a huge place in Ron's heart—surpassed only by one other person. And she was probably the one person benefiting the most from his wish to have never existed.

_Wait, what am I saying? _Ron thought, shaking his head in his hands. _If I didn't exist, I wouldn't __be__ here! I'd be lost in some weird, limbo-type place. _He looked over at Steve. _This guy's taken one too many trips to Crazytown. I gotta get out of here and prove him wrong._ He got up from the box and made for the attic door.

"Whoa, where're you going?" Steve asked, following him down the stairs to the second floor.

"To see my folks downstairs," Ron said. He stopped at what should have been Hana's nursery, but instead found what looked like a study. He felt a sharp pang once again, _No Han either…_ "My mom will make us both some tea and then maybe I can get my head on straight again."

"Ooooh boy," Steve said under his breath as they trekked down the stairs to the main floor and headed for the kitchen. There were no lights on in the living room, and only one coming from the kitchen.

"Who's there?!" called a harsh, frightened voice from the kitchen. "I've got plenty of sharp objects in the room and I'm not afraid to use them!"

"Mom, relax, it's just me," Ron said, laughing at his mother's severe overreaction. The tall, thin woman standing next to the fridge whipped around and screamed out loud at the sight of both Ron and Steve.

"Get out!" she screamed again. "I don't care how you got in here or what you want, just _get out_!"

"Mom, it's me, Ron!" Ron said loudly, completely bewildered at why his mother was acting like this. "I live here, remember?"

"No one lives here except me and the man of the house!" his mother said, pulling open a drawer in the counter. Fishing around, she pulled out three sharp knives and pointed them in their direction. "Now _leave_!"

"Mom, don't you know me?" Ron asked desperately.

"I didn't want to have to do this!" she yelled warningly. She yanked open the broom cupboard and pulled out a long rifle, firing it at the ceiling, Ron and Steve both jumping about ten feet in the air.

"I suggest we split," Steve whispered out the corner of his mouth. Ron nodded and they both made a mad dash for the front door, wrenched it open and sprinted out into the freezing night air. They continued to dodge Mrs. Stoppable's mad knife-throwing skills and rifle shots clear across the block before they turned the corner and out of sight.

* * *

The twin ghosts landed Kim lightly in another classroom, a bit larger than the preschool complete with desks and a chalkboard. Christmas decorations adorned the bulletin boards and borders on the chalkboard, and even a fake clump of mistletoe hung in the doorway.

"Look familiar?" the twins asked together.

"Vaguely," Kim said slowly, recognizing that this was definitely Middleton Elementary. Rather than sitting at their desks working diligently, the children were spread out all over the room, talking loudly, eating and drinking the provided refreshments. Kim again saw a younger version of herself, her long hair tied in a high ponytail, and Ron, clearly looking older but still with his cherubic features in tact. She also recognized a few of the other children besides herself and Ron, including a blonde and freckled Tara, Walter Nelson pre-braces, and Josh Mankey. Kim grinned, _He was always really handsome, even as a kid…_

"Your fourth grade class Christmas Party," Jim clarified. "Your teacher, Ms. Peterson had one every year, with decorations, music and, of course, a gift exchange."

"You picked _Walter Nelson_," Tim said, emphasizing his name with sickening adoration, and Kim rolled her eyes, wondering what she had ever really seen in Walter.

"And Ron picked you," Jim said—but Kim had gasped out loud before Jim had even finished his sentence, the memories finally tumbling into place. Now she remembered what had happened at this party. A high-pitched giggle soared over the sounds of chatter, and Kim turned slowly to see a brunette with her hair done up high and a permanent scowl on the face of who could have only been a ten-year-old Bonnie Rockwaller. Kim glared at her, her fists clenched. Oh yes…she remembered _exactly _what had happened at this party…

The ghosts looked at the expression on Kim's face, then at eachother and nodded. "So, I guess you figured out why we brought you to this point in time," Jim said casually while Kim still seethed in Bonnie's direction. "Ron had gone shopping with his mother and bought you a really nice present."

"A white party dress," Tim added, "and he put it in _that _gift bag." He pointed to the shiny bag, red with green Christmas trees on it.

"Now the object of your disgust over there," Jim continued, jerking his head in Bonnie's direction, "never really liked either of you from the start."

"'Cause Ron was a loser—"

"—and you were her competition." They watched as Bonnie went to refill her plastic cup with grape juice, giggling with a few of her lackeys.

"So she decided to ruin the gift exchange—"

"—for the both of you."

Kim groaned loudly as she watched Bonnie walk, with her full cup of grape juice, towards where all the gifts were situated. Everyone else was gathered around the Christmas tree, oblivious to what was happening. "Why are you showing me this?!" she rounded on the twin ghosts. "It was bad enough having to go through this the first time, now I have to rewatch it again?!"

"'Cause something happens here that you need to be reminded of—badly," Jim said. With another giggle and a small "oops!", Bonnie tipped the grape juice towards Ron's gift bag—

"Stop!" Kim cried out in vain, but it was too late.

"Wouldn't have been able to hear you anyway," Jim reminded. The juice splashed inaudibly into the red and green Christmas bag, containing the white party dress Ron had meant for Kim.

"Now that," Tim said, shaking his head while Kim covered her face with her hands helplessly, "is hard core evil…"

* * *

Ron and Steve waited until they were a good five blocks away from his house before starting to walk at a normal pace again. Now that he was no longer running for his life, Ron realized just how cold out it really was, and he hadn't grabbed a jacket. Steve must have noticed this as well, and flicked the air around him almost lazily. Ron suddenly felt the cold leave him and the air surrounding him grow to a normal room temperature, almost as if a heater had been turned on inside of him. He looked up at his guardian angel and managed a half smile, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Steve said; they were heading into downtown Middleton now. "Your mom's a feisty one, isn't she?"

"Not really," Ron answered, shaking his head in disbelief. "I've never seen her act like that. Not just with waving the pointy objects around, but…she acted like she didn't even know me."

"Not completely shocking, considering she doesn't have any children since you were never born," Steve responded, and Ron rolled his eyes as if to say "sure, whatever."

"And the rifle—man, that was just sick and wrong!"

"Well, you're gonna see a lot of sick and wrong things from now on," Steve said. They approached the entrance to downtown Middleton and looked around. Ron's brow became more furrowed in concern the longer he looked, for this was sure not the downtown he was used to seeing. It seemed as though half the stores were closing up, and the rest of them appeared unkempt and grimly dirty like the setting of an old film noir. People walking down the street, who were usually rather friendly at this time of year, were cold and distant, keeping their heads bowed as they headed through the blowing winter air.

_What the heck happened to Middleton? _Ron thought to himself. He didn't have to look far, however, to find his answer. Looking at the large sign above him that usually read "You Are Now in Middleton," he gasped. For the once welcoming sign now read:

_Welcome to Drakkenton! Owned by Dr. Drakken and Shego, Supreme Rulers of the World_

Steve gazed up at the sign as well, nodding in understanding. He turned, looked into the shocked face of his companion and said, "Told ya so."

* * *

A/N: Hope you guys are enjoying it so far! Please read and review!


	3. You Are Now In Pottersville

A/N: Hope you guys are enjoying Kim's trek through time, and Ron's trek through a Ron Stoppable-less world. Here's Chapter 3 of there nighttime adventure. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 3—You Are Now In Pottersville

"Looks like Ms. Peterson is just about through the gifts," the spirit that resembled Jim said, folding his arms across his chest. Kim's fourth grade class was gathered around the front of the festive classroom, where their teacher was passing out the Secret Santa gifts. She held up a rectangle package wrapped in red, shiny paper and smiled.

"Now this one is for Walter Nelson," Ms. Peterson said, looking around at her crowd of children, prompting them. "And it's from…?"

"Me! Me! It's from me, Walter!" ten-year-old Kim cried out, waving her hand in the air and bouncing on the balls of her feet. She instantly stopped and blushed as a few of the girls began giggling, "Kim and Walter, sittin' in a tree…"

Kim turned to glare at the twin ghosts, who also begun chuckling, "There's nothing funny about this."

"Yes there is!" Tim laughed. "Man, you had it _bad _for him!"

Kim scowled and turned away from the spirits, who were just as bad, if not worse than her _real_ twin brothers. Why were they showing her this? To _torture _her? It was awful enough actually _seeing _Bonnie do the deed, a fact she and everyone else in the room had been oblivious to the first time around. It had been a low act, even for Bonnie, to go and ruin Ron's present for Kim. _Those ghosts are right, _Kim thought shaking her head, _Bonnie's __way__ worse than high school evil…_

"Wow! The newest Mighty Morpin' Command Combatant action figure!" Walter exclaimed, holding it up for everyone to see, to cheers of approval from the boys in the room. "Thanks Kim, it's just what I wanted."

"You're welcome, Walter," young Kim said, shifting closer next to him shyly, staring into his face with a smile. "I _knew_ you'd like it."

"Would you guys _shut up_?!" Kim yelled over at the ghosts, who had doubled over with laughter again at her younger self's attempts at flirting. Even _she _was embarrassed by herself.

"Only a couple more left," Ms. Peterson announced, going over to where the gifts were laid out. "Now, let's see…"

"Here we go," Jim said seriously, his smile disappearing. "Pay attention, Kim."

"No…I can't stomach watching this again, _please_," Kim pleaded. She turned away from the scene and heading for the classroom door, only to be grabbed by two pairs of arms and steered around so she was facing the crowd of children again. She watched in horror as Ms. Peterson gestured towards the red gift bag with green Christmas trees on it.

"Now _this_ one," the teacher said, reading the tag, "is for Kim Possible. And it's from…?"

The gangly little blonde-haired boy seated on young Kim's other side grinned widely, his hand shooting into the air. The little auburn-haired girl turned to Ron and smiled sweetly while the class groaned, a few boys yelling, "Duh!" and "Who didn't see _that _coming?!" Kim looked at her youthful best friend; his smile could have lit up a Fourth of July parade. She wished with everything inside her that she could freeze time and stay in that instant—her and Ron, smiling at eachother, her and her best friend's happiness, about to be shattered in a matter of moments. Kim clutched at her face, her nails digging into her cheeks as Ms. Peterson picked up Ron's gift bag.

"Oh my goodness!" the teacher gasped. For when she had picked up the bag, grape juice trickled rapidly from the bottom. The class was open-mouthed in surprise—Kim clenched her fists as she saw Bonnie in the back row of the crowd, her body shaking with silent laughter. Ron pushed his way to the front and took the bag from the teacher. His eyes widened larger than saucers, reaching down into the bag and pulling out the once pure white dress—now thoroughly soaked in a purple-maroonish color.

"Ooooh, _nice_ gift he got you there, Kim," Bonnie laughed, her cronies roaring next to her as a good chunk of the class began to laugh as well. Young Kim whirled around and glared at Bonnie, shaking a fist in her direction. This only caused her school foe to laugh louder, for Bonnie knew her red-headed rival wouldn't _dare_ try to fight her in front of the teacher. Instead, young Kim turned back around and looked sadly at Ron at the front of the room.

"Quiet now, all of you or this party is over!" Ms. Peterson shouted, clapping her hands loudly. The room fell somewhat quieter as Ron lowered his head, his face scrunched up and tears steaming down his round, freckled cheeks.

"Crybaby Stoppable!" yelled one of the larger built boys towards the front, as Ron bolted out the classroom door and into the hallway.

"That's _enough_, Mr. Flagg!" Ms. Peterson yelled.

"Follow him," Tim whispered in Kim's ear, pointing out the classroom door, and Kim obeyed. They moved out of the room and down the hall a little ways, past the dingy bathrooms and drinking fountain. The sight that met Kim once they'd reached their destination was almost more than she could stand. Ron was sitting curled up on the floor next to the Christmas tree in the hallway, his arms resting on his knees and his face hidden. He was sobbing, whimpering audibly as any young boy would when his world caved in around him and nothing ever seemed to go right for him.

_This is real_, Kim thought. If there was one thing she knew about Ron, it was that he wore his heart on his sleeve and got upset easily, sometimes overreacting at the simplest, stupidest things. But this wasn't Ron crying over cancelled Naco Night, a discontinued video game series, or accidentally losing Rufus on a runaway toy race car. No, these were real tears, the tears he shed whenever he really felt helpless and alone, and truly heartbroken. Kim hadn't witnessed them often—but it ripped her heart out every single time she had.

"Ron? Ron, where are you?" came a familiar little girl's voice, and Kim turned around to see her younger self jogging down the hall, checking the empty classrooms as she went. As she rounded the corner, she came to a halt at the Christmas tree where Ron was huddled underneath. Her face softened into a pitying expression as she realized Ron was crying, and she walked up beside him. Kneeling down at his side him, she draped a comforting arm around his shoulders.

"Ron, it's okay—it's all okay, really," she said encouragingly. "I know it was Bonnie who did it, and she's gonna pay, I swear. But it was really a nice gift, Ron, thank you." She smiled, poking him playfully in the arm, "Hey, I think purple looks better on me anyway." Ron whimpered loudly, burying his face deeper in his arms, and Kim stopped joking around. She reached over and wrapped both arms around his trembling form and pulled him close, resting her head on top of his messy blonde hair. "Don't cry, Ron," she said softly. "Please don't…I can't stand it when you cry."

_Me neither,_ Kim said to herself, finally noticing her own tears rolling silently down her face. Young Kim pulled back as Ron lifted his head from his arms, wiping his eyes and nose on his sweater sleeve.

"I just…I know you love Christmas more than anything," Ron sniffled. "And since I had the chance to actually get you something this year I…I really wanted it to be special. And I know you're really into clothes and stuff, so I—I thought a dress would—would be—"

"You're weird, Ron—but you're also the nicest person I've ever known," young Kim said, rubbing his back consolingly. "And I don't care about you _buying _me stuff. I care about…" She trailed off, as if struggling how to actually articulate what she was trying to say. "I mean, you're Jewish right? And you could just stay at home and celebrate Hanukkah with your family if you wanted to, right?"

Ron nodded, swiping at the corners of his eyes.

"But you still come over to my house _every _Christmas and celebrate with me and my family, no matter what!" Kim's young self went on. "And…that means so much more to me than _any _present." Slowly, ever so hesitantly, she reached up and ran her fingers through his blonde bangs. "You being my best friend…means the most to me."

Ron smiled through watery eyes, "Thanks, KP…I'm glad you're my best friend, too." Younger Kim grinned from ear to ear as they both leaned forward and embraced eachother tightly. A sort of fog began to surround them as the ghosts looked at what had just happened and nodded.

"Mm-hmm…very interesting," Tim said, tapping his chin with his finger.

"You value Ron that much," Jim added in a similar tone. "Did you really mean that?"

"Of course I did," Kim said firmly, wiping away the salty tear tracks on her cheeks. "What makes you think I—?"

"Oh, so she _did _mean it!" Jim said with mock sudden realization.

"But wait a sec, Jim!" Tim said, dramatically holding up a hand to silence him, then turning slowly to survey Kim. "Isn't this the _same _girl who told this _same _boy earlier tonight that she wished she'd never met him?" Both twins looked in her direction and Kim stared at them, unable to speak. "Did you mean _that_?"

_So __that's__ how they're gonna play this out…_

"I was angry, I—I just—are we about done here?!" Kim finally exploded. "I'm tired of you tweeb—ghosts—whatever you are, taking me on a trip down memory lane—literally—showing me something like this and getting a _kick_ out of it! I want to go home."

"Relax," Tim said, linking his arm with hers. "We're almost out of time here, and we still have one more Christmas left to show you…"

* * *

_Shego Partytorium…Club Shego…Cine-Shego…Someone loves herself a little __too__ much…__Bueno __Shego__! Oh, now she's gone too far!_

These and other names of buildings and entertainment facilities caught Ron's eye as he sprinted down the street of the town formerly known as Middleton. '_Drakkenton'…It doesn't even __sound__ good…'Oh guess what, honey? We're moving to Drakkenton!'…Eww!_

"Ron, wait up!"

Ron skidded to a halt from the ice on the sidewalk as he heard his name being called by his so-called guardian angel. "Could you not call me 'Ron', dude?" he said cringing a bit. "Sorry, it's just too weird hearing my first name coming from my former coach's voice."

"Fair enough," Steve said, panting a bit. "You're a speedy one, aren't you."

"Middleton High's star running back, senior year!" Ron said proudly, now walking steadily next to the angel.

"Not anymore," Steve said, tightening his scarf around his throat as the late night winter wind began to pick up.

"Wha—oh yeah, right, the whole 'not being born' thing," Ron said, using his fingers to make air quotes.

"Yep…you made your wish, and now you're facing the consequences," Steve said, gesturing around him at the conveniences now bearing Shego's name. "Dr. Drakken and Shego rule the world now. Shego agreed to let Drakken be the Head Supreme Ruler as long as he plastered her name on every major company and corporation in the world."

"Except that one!" Ron exclaimed suddenly, pointing to a dingy little building that simply read "Arcade." "Major score!" He punched the air and dashed inside, leaving Steve out in the cold to wonder, _Did he listen to a __word__ I just said?_

Ron looked contentedly around the gaming arena; it didn't seem to have changed much at all. And the sign on the front door had said _Free Gaming_, a huge bonus. He was about to sit down at one of the stations when something—or rather _someone_—caught his eye. A wheelchair bound kid with wavy brown hair—his best guy friend, Felix Renton.

"Felix, hey man!" Ron called, waving and going up to him. Felix slowly peeled his eyes away from the game he was fully absorbed in and looked at him quizzically.

"Do I know you?"

"Dude, it's me, Ron!" Ron said, pointing to himself. "We've been gaming buds for a long time! This place is like our second home!—well, _my _third home, BN always comes first—"

"Whatever," Felix said in a bored voice and turned back to his game. Ron stepped back a bit to get a better look at his friend; he sure looked different. He was pudgy and rounder around the middle, as if he'd been doing nothing but sitting and playing video games for months, maybe longer. His eyes traveled further down and he noticed something else.

"Dude, what happened to your wheelchair? The tricked-out one—where is it?"

"Got stolen by this blonde dude with a mullet…guess he's the Supreme Ruler's cousin or something," Felix said, his eyes never leaving the game in front of him that Ron could now get a closer look at, merely called "Castle." The graphics were truly awful, and the concept looked even worse. All the little guy with blue skin did was jump up and down, collecting gold coins until he made it to the king's chamber, where he punched him out and did a happy dance, a speech bubble appearing which said "I rule the world!" And it repeated…over and over and _over_.

"_Why _in the name of Zombie Mayhem are you playing this game, Felix?" Ron asked in a tortured voice, as if he couldn't take it anymore. Felix remained as fixated and absorbed as ever.

"It's _addicting_, man," he said in a quieter voice. "Besides, it's the only game the Supreme Rulers will let us play, you know that." Ron looked around at the few other gamers in the room, and saw that they too were capturing gold coins in "Castle."

"Okay, that's it!" Ron said determinedly. _No _one was going to completely destroy the quality of gaming and get away with it. "C'mon, Felix!" He kicked up the brake on Felix's chair and made to wheel him out of there.

"I don't _think_ so!" Felix said, roughly shoving Ron back. "Who do you think you are, trying to push me out?!"

"I'm Ron, your best friend," Ron said firmly.

"I don't have any friends," Felix said, turning his chair back towards the game.

"_I'm _your friend, I know everything about you!" Ron cried out. "You're Felix Renton, you live with your mom on Spruce Avenue, were valedictorian at Middleton High in the spring, your girlfriend's Zita Flores—"

"You know Zita?" Felix said, turning away from the game for the first time of his own accord.

"Know her? I used to _date _her!" Ron said in exasperation. "She's been your girlfriend as long as me and Kim have been together."

"Look, let's get a few things straight," Felix said angrily. "I dropped out of high school after junior year, that tramp Zita dumped me a year ago for a men's swimsuit model,—and I've never seen _you _before in my life! Now beat it if you know what's good for you!"

Stunned beyond words at Felix's aggressiveness towards him, Ron turned on his heel and went from the arcade back out into the winter night. He found Steve sitting on a bench outside and sat down next to him.

"Okay, that was _wrong-sick_," Ron said half to himself. "Felix's never talked to me like that, and he said he'd never _seen_ me before, and—"

"Hate to say I told you so, but…" Steve finished by shrugging his shoulders comically. Ron turned slowly to look at him, his confused expression hardening into annoyance, surveying his companion up and down.

"Alright, buddy…what's really going on here? Who are you?"

"I told you, I'm Steve AS2, your guardian angel," Steve replied patiently.

"And why am I seeing all these wrong-sick things?!" Ron asked much louder.

"It's because you were not _born_," Steve answered, again as patient as a kindergarten teacher. "You don't exist."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?!" Ron yelled out, leaping up from the bench. "I'm Ronald Adrian Stoppable, of _course _I exist!"

"There is no Ron Stoppable," Steve shook his head. "You have no cell phone, no pager, no school records, no driver's license, no recording-breaking football trophies…"

Ron checked his back pocket—his wallet was gone. He checked his right pocket—his cell phone was gone. He switched to his left—

"It's not there either," Steve said before Ron's fingers had even entered his pocket.

Ron's eyes narrowed. "What's not?" he tested him.

"Kim's promise ring."

His fingers slipped inside—sure enough, Steve was right. Nothing. He sat back down on the bench and buried his face in his hands. Maybe, just maybe, this whole wish wasn't such a great idea after all. Look at what had happened to Middleton, and Felix, and Bueno Nacho. _But…_His head snapped up. There was still one very important factor in this whole sitch that hadn't been touched upon yet.

"Steve, where's Kim?"

"Um, well she's uh…" For the first time, Steve looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"C'mon, please tell me where she is," Ron said, adopting a nicer tone that he hoped would get him what he wanted. "I just want to see how much better she's doing now that I'm not around anymore. Apparently she didn't do the whole 'save-the-world' thing," he confirmed, looking around at the city now owned by Drakken and Shego.

Steve sucked in a long breath and let it out slowly. "I…I can't let you see Kim right now, Stoppable," he said, getting up from the bench and walking down the sidewalk once again.

"Saving the best for last, huh?" Ron said with a grim laugh, falling into step next to his angel. Steve said nothing, but patted Ron firmly on the shoulder as they moved on…

* * *

What the last two memories Kim had seen had in the festiveness and decor of Christmas the next one severely lacked in. When she and the twin ghosts had landed through the smoky haze, she heard a loud squelching beneath her feet. She looked down and saw that her feet were sinking into the largest, deepest pile of mud she had ever seen. With a yelp of disgust, she extracted her feet and looked around to get her bearings. No cold, no snow, no houses or buildings for that matter, just—_jungle_. Kim smacked a hand to her forehead: the _Amazon_—of course!

"Man, Kim, what a weirdo way to spend your Christmas," Jim winced as he and Tim pulled their feet out of the mud as well.

"Like I wanted to," Kim grumbled. This Christmas was actually in the not-too-distant past; the year Ron went off to stop Drakken's latest scheme by himself so that Kim could spend Christmas with her family. It had been his gift to her for the holidays, but he had ended up getting stranded with Drakken when his spacecraft exploded, ejecting the five escape pods in the process. This had forced Kim to go on a wild goose chase across the world searching each of the pods. Striking out at four of the five, the last one had brought her here to the Amazon jungle, where she and her family had just fought off a humongous anaconda. "I suppose I can guess why you guys brought me here…"

"Yeah, it's probably pretty obvious," Tim said walking up beside her. Kim watched herself, not much older than sixteen, hug her parents and say gratefully, "I can't _believe _you guys!"

"'Cause something hit you _pretty _hard here," Jim added, as teenage Kim's Kimmunicator rang. Kim smiled; the old, handheld Kimmunicator, she missed it sometimes.

"I'm getting a distress signal from that pod," she heard Wade's voice from the device. "Ron _has_ to be in it."

"Well, good news there," her father said with a smile as younger Kim pulled out her grappling hook aiming it at the tree where the escape pod lay.

"I'll get Ron," teen Kim said determinedly. "We'll all be home for Christmas dinner."

"Can we borrow the Kimmunicator?" said one of the boys with a wavy mop of brown hair.

"We want to watch Xtreme Xmas!" his twin explained. Kim looked over and smirked at the two ghosts, who were gaping at their doubles, then at eachother. "Nah!" they finally said together, shaking their heads. Teenage Kim handed off her device to them, just before firing her grapple at the top of the tree and pulling herself up.

"Time to fly!" the ghosts said to Kim, and before she could protest, they grabbed her by the arms and lifted her up to the top of the tree as well to get a closer look.

"Guys, I already know what happened! You didn't have to drag me up here!" Kim exclaimed, shrugging their hands off of her as her teen self entered the pod, only to find a monkey pressing the distress signal repeatedly.

"Just a friendly reminder," Jim winked at her, and Kim rolled her eyes.

"Ron?" her teenage self asked to no one in particular, looking out at the vast jungle. "Where _are _you?"

"You were really worried about him, weren't you?" Tim asked sympathetically.

Kim nodded, "But he was fine…turned out he got out in the garbage shoot and landed at the North Pole."

"But you didn't know that yet," Jim reminded her, pointing to her younger self. She was pacing the now vacant pod; the monkey had scampered off.

"I _know _Wade said five pods," she whispered to herself. She counted silently on her fingers, "Yeah, five…and this is the fifth one…and Ron…isn't in it..." She trailed off, her eternal look of confidence had vanished to be replaced with a look of anxiousness and slight panic. "But…that can't be right. If he wasn't in any of the pods, then _that _must mean…when the craft exploded, he…" Her hands covered her mouth and she squeezed her eyes shut tight, shaking her head swiftly. "No—no, it can't be—there's no way!" Her eyes filled with tears, "But it's the _only_ way…" She remained silent for a few moments, before sinking down onto the edge of the pod, breaking into sobs. "N—no, Ron…this is all my _fault_!" She looked up at the sky, tears pouring from her eyes. "You can't just _leave _me like that, Ron, you can't! What am I supposed to do without you?! You mean _everything _to me!"

"Wow, bold statement," Jim commented to Kim, who nodded in agreement. Had she really said that? She had been so consumed by this crushing grief that she couldn't remember anything she said that night. "Like you said, he _did _turn out fine," Jim continued.

"But for several minutes, you _really_ thought he'd been taken from you," Tim added, looking at teenage Kim, then closely at the real Kim. "Remember how you felt?"

Kim watched as her teen self sobbed helplessly, hugging herself tightly as she kept her head bowed. If there was anything that anyone knew about Kim Possible, it was that she was a tough girl. She always had been, and it took a lot to make her break down like this. And she would never, _ever _forget the feeling that enveloped her at that moment, the moment she thought Ron was really gone for good.

"It felt like the end of the world," she replied after a deep breath. "It was when I realized that you really don't cherish what you have until it's gone. I knew he _was _gone…and I blamed myself completely. I would've never been happy again…" She blinked rapidly to force back tears, "It was one of the first moments I realized that…_I loved him_. More than any girl should love her best friend. It felt like someone had ripped out half of me, and destroyed it beyond repair."

"Again, bold statement," Tim said nodding. Wordlessly, they took her arms and a haze engulfed them again. When it had cleared, Kim had to pull her robe tighter around herself to shield against the intense cold of the North Pole. But the next sound she heard warmed her up faster than a steaming mug of hot chocolate.

"KP!" came the joyful cry of a high, nasally voice she knew better than anything. Teenage Kim rushed forward and they flung their arms around eachother. Kim smiled; it was one of the most magical moments of her life, seeing Ron alive and well after she had truly believed her worst nightmare had come true. She turned to the ghosts to express gratitude for bringing them here, only to discover that their bodies were becoming rapidly more transparent as they spoke.

"So next time you decide to make another bold statement, Kim—"

"—like, say, 'I wish I never even met you'—"

"—remember all those times in the _past_—"

"—and you won't feel so bad about what's going on now." The wind began to pick up as the twins smiled in her direction and waved. "Til then—_hicka-bicka-boo!_"

"Hoo-sha," Kim finished with grin, waving back at them. And with that, the ghosts vanished as did the scene before her, and Kim felt herself falling through darkness until she landed on a soft mattress covered in layers of blankets in a familiar room...

* * *

"Steve?" Ron asked tentatively as they walked through the dark town of Drakkenton. "You've been awfully quiet ever since I mentioned Kim." He paused, looking down at his feet as they trudged down the icy, snowy street. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

_Catches on pretty quick for a C-plus student_, Steve observed, _May as well give him a little background info, since she means that much to him. _"Well, Kim's an ambitious, headstrong, stubborn perfectionist; you not existing didn't change that in the slightest. And contrary to your theory, Stoppable, your girlfriend _did _in fact do her 'save the world' thing," Steve explained, slowing his walk down to a stroll. "That brings us to how things ended up like this: Dr. Drakken's scheme with the Hephaestus Project and the Little Diablo toys at Bueno Nacho ended up working out in his favor."

"What?!" Ron exclaimed, his head snapping up in shock. "But—how—why didn't Kim—?"

"After Drakken and Shego became the Supreme Rulers, Kim became their eternal prisoner in exchange for keeping her family and friends safe from harm," Steve went on. "They figured that instead of destroying the crime-fighting teen, they could use her abilities to their advantage. Although after faking her out with a Synthodrone boyfriend, she'd lost most of her spirit and optimistic edge by then."

"But _why _couldn't she stop them?" Ron asked, trying to picture the girl he cared about more than anything slaving around for Drakken and Shego. It made his insides churn angrily at the thought.

"You tell me, kid," Steve said after a short pause. Ron thought about this for a minute—then gasped out in horror. Because he hadn't been there to pull her out of her slump in the Drakken's warehouse, she had given up completely. She surrendered to a power she knew deep down in her heart wasn't as great as hers, and _that _was the sole reason Drakken and Shego had succeeded in gaining global domination. It was heartbreaking for Ron to even think about.

"Steve…please show me where she is," Ron almost begged, trying not to sound desperate and failing. "Maybe Kim's under some awful sitch, but…I just need to know that she's alright, that she's safe."

"I'll make you a deal, Stoppable," Steve said, stopping and turning around to face Ron. "You follow me from now on instead of running around by yourself…and I'll show you where Kim is before the night is out."

* * *

A/N: Please read and review! I promise this story will be completed on or before Christmas Eve!


	4. To Understand the Present

A/N: Onward through Kim and Ron's journey, here's Chapter 4. There's startling revelations and some comedy relief...but also an underlying sense of dread for both parties. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 4—To Understand the Present

Filled with the relief of being back and warm in her own bed, Kim tried to snuggle down and fall back asleep. Her mind was still spinning over the memories from her past she had just relived, moments between her and Ron and the friendship that had grown over the years. She cherished those moments with him above everything else, and they had had their good moments together. But with good times in a relationship ultimately come bad times, and once again Kim found herself dwelling on earlier that evening. Of Ron's mission blunder and how he would not admit to his mistake, as well as the blowout that had occurred over that and her cooking disaster. As best friends, and now boyfriend and girlfriend, they tended to argue quite a bit, but that essentially came with the "opposites attract" territory.

_But_, she thought as she buried her face further into her pillow, _this was a bad one. _A complete falling out where both sides had dealt out and taken major blows. Sure, she had yelled at him plenty of times, but she could barely remember a time where he raised his voice to _her _like that. _And then I had to say that—I can't __believe__ I could ever say those words to him! If he never forgave me for what I said, I wouldn't blame him. If he came over tomorrow and said he wanted to break up with me…it would __hurt__…it would hurt so bad…but I still wouldn't blame him. _A few tears escaped from her closed eyelids and rolled down her nose to wet her pillow. She had just watched herself and Ron grow closer as the years went by…but that was then. Now…was it possible that after all these years…the team that had done and survived the impossible was _finally _growing apart?

The digital clock on her nightstand changed from 1:59 to 2:00—and all at once the lamp on Kim's desk flicked on. Kim growled loudly and flung the covers off once again. "_Now _what?!" she shouted out. Through her clouded vision she could make out a figure who strode over to her closet and flung the doors open dramatically. Clapping its hands, the person lit up Kim's closet, light spilling throughout the room. Kim squinted through the sudden change in lighting, and when her eyes had adjusted, she could clearly make out the only person that she would probably ever let _near _her closet, dressed in a stylish, Santa's helper holiday outfit.

"_Monique?!_"

"Not exactly," the fashionista said with a smile, and Kim gasped when she finally got a good look at her clothes closet. It was _packed_ full; everything from jeans to tops to skirts to dresses filled her closet to capacity, several things Kim knew she could _never _afford on her college-student budget. The floor was even aligned with dozens of shoes, and everything bore the same designer label.

"I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present," the figure who looked and sounded _exactly _like Monique announced. "And _these_," she gestured to the clothes and shoes behind her, "are the _present _best-sellers at Club Banana."

Kim had since jumped out of bed and rushed over to the closet to look through her newly expanded closet rack. "Do I get to keep these?!" she asked excitedly.

"Depends," the ghost said. "Do you _need _them?"

Kim's face fell; she had just gone shopping with the _real _Monique last week, "Well…no, but…"

"Then sorry," Monique replied, and she slammed the doors shut, Kim pulling back her fingers so they wouldn't get caught in the doors. Kim couldn't help giving the spirit her signature puppy-dog pout, which caused the festive ghost to throw back her head and laugh. "Do you _really _think that's gonna work on me, girl?"

"Was worth a shot," Kim grumbled under her breath, and Monique continued to chuckle as she and Kim sat down together on the bed.

"Well, if there's one thing I know about you, girlfriend, it's that we think alike," the spirit said. "We both share a love of fashion and always try and keep up with the latest trends. Getting, say, that new skirt we've been _dying _to have—that makes us happy."

"Straight up," Kim said with a grin, and the friendly ghost slid an arm around her shoulders.

"Oh, c'mon girl!" she exclaimed and Kim looked at her, confused. "No matter what this commercial society throws at us, _you can't buy happiness_. Simple as that! If you owned all the clothes in that closet at this very moment, you'd still be as miserable as you are now." She squeezed Kim's shoulder, "You kinda got in a mess with your boy tonight, didn't you?"

Kim nodded silently, staring down at her hands in her lap. The ghost got up off the bed and faced her, "Not only that, but there's a few things goin' on tonight that you are _definitely _missing out on." She checked her watch, "Better get going or were gonna run outta time!"

"Wha—oh no, we're not going outside again, are we?" Kim complained, wrapping her robe around herself and putting on her slippers once again.

Monique shook her head, "I don't do that flying thing." She touched Kim's wrist, and the room was suddenly engulfed in fog, completely obscuring Kim's vision as she felt the sensation of floating. When the fog cleared, her feet felt solid ground beneath them—but they were most definitely not in the bedroom anymore…

* * *

"Uh, Steve?" Ron asked as he looked around at their changing environment. "We're kinda heading into the—uh—nasty side of town." Not that it wasn't all nasty, this _was_ a world ruled by Drakken and Shego. But in Middleton, this was the part of town Ron usually only entered if Kim and her sixteen styles of kung-fu were with him, for obvious reasons. In Drakkenton, the long alleyways and dark street corners with their streetlights flickering ominously had turned it from nasty to downright petrifying.

Steve did not answer as they continued to walk down the stony silent street, stopping finally in front of a building with a neon sign on the front. A few of the letters didn't light up anymore, but Ron was able to make out what it said:

_Shego's Sin City_

"We are _not _going in there, are we?!" Ron asked, his high voice cracking a bit. He may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he knew what a place with dark, tinted front windows and a name like _Shego's Sin City _would contain inside. If Kim ever caught him in a place like this, let's just say he would get a lot worse than what he got after the whole Homecoming fiasco.

"I feel like a beer," Steve said casually, pushing open the front door, the sounds of slow jazz music heard from inside.

"Forget it," Ron said, shaking his head and making to walk away.

"Hey! What happened to our deal, kid?!" Steve reminded him, wagging a finger in his direction. Ron stopped and gritted his teeth, silently cursing Yahweh and the heavens above. _Please, __please__ don't make me go in there. _But he had no choice—he was going to have to follow Steve wherever he went if he was ever going to find out where Kim was. _But __why here__? _Slowly, he turned around and followed Steve inside with the air of one going to their execution.

It was exactly what Ron had feared. The small space was cluttered with small round tables with two chairs to each, and a stage area with a single spotlight towards the front. The bar stood off to the side, where two men were flirting with the lone female bartender, who refilled their drinks. Steve went over to the bar to get his beer, while Ron sat down nervously at one of the tables towards the back. Only a few people were in the facility on this Christmas Eve night, a couple making out in a corner and a small group of young men towards the front who were gawking and whistling.

A young woman with long, silky brown hair was pole dancing with her back turned to them, winding her legs around the silver pole like two identical snakes. She wore sequined, black attire that just barely covered her private areas as she slid slowly down the pole, flexing her long, toned legs. Once she reached the floor, she sat down in the chair set onstage and swung her legs around so she faced the audience—and Ron nearly fell out of his chair.

It was Bonnie Rockwaller.

"Surprised?" Steve asked, setting his beer down on the table next to him as he sat down. "I'm not. She never _did _get over the summer school thing." He took a sip and watched Bonnie do a split, followed by applause from her admirers. "The Supreme Rulers didn't offer a lot of jobs to people who had just barely made it through high school. So Bonnie was almost forced to come here to make a living."

"Does Kim still hate her?" Ron asked, watching Bonnie work her way down into her small audience.

"Sure thing," Steve replied. "You not existing didn't change that. But it was more about the competitiveness of cheerleading than anything. You see, you weren't around to be Kim's best friend since preschool, so Bonnie didn't deliberately try and make your lives miserable every chance she got." He paused, "The rivalry was there, sure—but when you were around—"

Ron nodded in understanding, "The _real _reason Kim hated Bonnie was because of the way she always treated me. Almost like I was less of a person than she was." He couldn't even begin to count all of the times Kim had stood up to Bonnie on his behalf through the years. Even after they started dating, Kim had refused to succumb to Bonnie's cheerleader norm of dating a jock and stood by his side—and that meant more to him than his girlfriend would ever know. _But still_…He watched Bonnie sit on one of the men's laps and lean forward so he could stare down her cleavage. Never before did the phrase "I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy" apply more than it did here, and for the first time in his life, Ron felt sorry for Bonnie Rockwaller.

"I'm gonna get a refill," Steve said with a sigh after sitting in silence for several moments. Once Steve had gone back to the bar, Ron got up and made his way towards the front near the stage. Bonnie caught his eye and smiled.

"Oh…someone else wants a little one-on-one action with Ruby," the brunette said slyly, walking over to him.

"Ruby? You're name's Bonnie," Ron said, furrowing his brow at her.

"It's _Ruby_," Bonnie said a bit fiercely, and Ron felt taken aback. _Okay then…must be a stage name or something._

"You're a cute one, aren't you?" she giggled, her long nails running through his hair. "Look at those freckles," she purred, her fingers traveling down to stroke his cheeks.

_Oh, this is not good_. "Uh, Bon—_Ruby_?" Ron said hastily. "Could you not—?"

"Just relax and let Ruby do all the work," Bonnie said. She pushed him down into a chair and leapt onto his lap with a little squeal. Pressing her body up against him, she rubbed her hands along his back, torso and arms—which were less lanky and more toned since successfully tapping into his monkey power. Even Kim had told him he looked hot…_Kim_…

"Whoa there, horsey!" Ron exclaimed suddenly. He pushed Bonnie off his lap, a little harder than he meant to as she fell to the floor. She whined and looked up at him, pouting. "Sorry," he said, taking her by the hand and helping her up.

"Doesn't this make you _feel _good?" Bonnie asked, emphasizing her point by sliding her arms around his waist.

"Look, Ruby," Ron said firmly, backing up and removing Bonnie's hands from his waist. "Under different circumstances, this would be _great_." He admitted this with shame, but didn't let it show in the hardness in his face. "But I have a girlfriend and I love her very much. I'm sorry." And without so much as a backward glance, he turned around and strode out of the club.

"Dang it all," Steve said, watching Ron slam the front door behind him. He looked longingly at the female bartender curled up in his lap and sighed, "I better follow him."

"Do you have to?" the wavy raven-haired woman asked breathily, holding Steve's arms firmly around her hourglass-shaped form.

"Unfortunately," Steve said, looking agonized that he had to leave her. "He's a good kid, but he needs a little guidance. I better watch out for him." Once she had gotten off his lap, he gave her one last look and headed out the front door thinking, _Oh boy…I'm really gonna hear it from the Big Guy about __that__ when I get back…_

* * *

"Now _this _is a party!" the spirit of Christmas present said with a whoop as Kim took in her surroundings. She instantly recognized Monique's living room, as well as several of her old high school classmates scattered throughout the room, decorated in casual Christmas attire. She saw her ex-boyfriend Josh Mankey was there with her fellow cheerleader Tara, Ron's best guy friend Felix Renton with Zita Flores, as well as several other couples from her senior class. "Looks like there was a prerequisite for this little bash, huh?"

"Yep," Kim said, unable to suppress a smile. It began when Monique went to Upperton University in the fall and met up with Brick Flagg, former Middleton High quarterback and Bonnie's ex. They had gotten to talking, and turned out Brick had always had a thing for Monique, rekindling a spark Monique had been keeping secret as well. They officially got together at a Halloween party at school, and Kim had been the first to hear the awesome news. With the holidays coming up, Monique had decided to have a couples' party since pretty much everyone they hung out with was hooked up. Kim had been all for it, until Christmas with her family and the sudden mission had wiped it clean from her mind. Kim looked over in the corner and saw Monique on her cell phone, her finger in her other ear to block out the music and chatter.

"I like this girl's _style_!" the spirit laughed and Kim joined in, since Monique was wearing the exact same Santa's helper outfit that the spirit was wearing. Kim stopped laughing, however, when she saw the disappointed look on Monique's face.

"Kim, it's the one night all your friends are here," Monique said into her phone, looking around the room at the cheery group. "Ain't no time like the present." Kim looked around at the spirit—for she had spoken the last phrase at the exact same time the real Monique had.

"Point taken," Kim said holding up her hand, just as the spirit opened her mouth to clarify. She closed it again and smiled, "I _heard _you were a smart one."

"Hey, we gotta get these party games started!" Felix said, wheeling himself next to Monique and spooning out some punch from the bowl for Zita. "Where's the Possible-Stoppable duo?"

"On a mission—on _Christmas Eve_!" Monique exclaimed in exasperation. "Kim said they're probably not gonna make it."

"Aw no," Zita said unhappily, "I haven't seen them since August...I was looking forward to catching up with them."

"Me too—plus they were a shoo-in to win Couples Twister tonight!" Felix added, earning him a smack upside the head from his girlfriend. "Aw dang, _and _there's gonna be one less couple for the Mistletoe Smooching contest!"

"Josh and Tara were a last minute invite, ask them," Monique said, moodily gesturing over to where said couple was downing eggnog on the sofa. "They'll probably win—they're both on the swim team." As Felix and Zita made their way to the sofa, Kim watched Monique hit the speed dial on her phone again and put the phone to her ear. After about a minute of listening to it ring, she sadly hung up again. Brick entered from the kitchen, and Monique instantly brightened as he slipped his arm around her waist and led her to the couch.

"You kinda helped her plan this whole thing," the spirit reminded Kim, who felt the familiar wave of guilt crash over her at seeing her friend's distress. "She looked pretty upset you weren't gonna show."

"It'd be one thing if this was the first time I ever bailed on her," Kim said, watching Monique and Brick lean in for a slow, tender kiss. "But it wasn't. I'm _always _bailing on people, all the time." She let out a short laugh, "It's the downside to being a never-says-no perfectionist, I guess. I get so caught up in my whole 'save-the-world' thing that I forget that I _need _to relax and have fun sometimes. That's…usually where Ron comes in."

"Ron goes on those missions, too," the spirit casually pointed out.

"Ron has a _choice_," Kim said, looking over at the spirit and shaking her head. "He doesn't realize it, but he does! This is my job, I'm recruited by Global Justice to keep the world safe for another day—they always request _me_! But Ron—"

"—knows he has a choice," the spirit finished firmly, staring directly into Kim's face. "He knows, girl…but he follows you headlong into danger without thinking anyways. He's afraid of pretty much everything, but he puts those fears aside for you. And do you know why?!" The ghost's voice had risen now as she pointed a finger in Kim's face. "Because what he is the _most _afraid of is something happening to _you_, the girl he loves, on one of those dangerous missions—and not being able to do a thing about it! Why do you think he took on the task of being 'The Monkey Master'? To protect _you_!_ That's _why he's content with just being your sidekick, that guy with Kim Possible who's name nobody can remember. He'll gladly step aside and let you shine…as long as he's there to catch you, should you ever fall."

Kim closed her eyes and sighed. She knew this, of course, she always had. But sometimes she took advantage of Ron and his ever-willingness to follow her on missions, and needed to be reminded, as she had been right now, of the dedication and unwavering support her lifelong best friend had always given her. "Can we go now?" was all she managed to say after several moments of silence.

The spirit's cheery disposition returned, "There's more we gotta look at tonight, not only with what your friends are doing, but…let's just see how those bad guys you fight off spend their holidays."

"You're not serious," Kim said, her voice shaking with laughter.

"Sure am!" the ghost said, taking her hand. "Besides, you look like you could use a laugh." The fog engulfed them once again, and when it cleared Kim saw the familiar lab of Dr. Drakken and Shego, which she had infiltrated countless times. Shego sat in Drakken's usual chair in front of the surveillance cameras, filing her nails. Her head jerked up when she heard the front door bang open.

"'Bout time you got back, Dr. D!" Shego called, tossing the nail file aside and standing up. "C'mon bring it in! And it better be a good one!"

"Oh geez, what'd they steal _now_?" Kim half asked herself with an eye roll and the spirit couldn't suppress a chuckle. Drakken waltzed casually into the room, carrying nothing but a limp, dying, and tiny evergreen tree supported on a wooden stand. He set it down and pulled a little gold star from his lab coat pocket and set it on top of the tree. "Ta-da!"

Shego glared at him, "That's it?" Her plasma hands flared, "Boy are you _stupid_, Dr. D! What kind of a tree is that?!"

"But—but—but Shego, you know it's Christmas Eve!" Drakken protested. "This was the only tree I could—"

"You were supposed to get a _good _tree!" Shego raged. "Can't you even tell a good tree from a poor tree?!" Drakken ran for cover as Shego threw several plasma blasts in his direction, shouting "The _one time _I try and make this dingy lair a little festive, and you gotta screw up as usual!"

"Good _grief_!" Drakken exclaimed, hiding behind his armchair.

Kim and the spirit were both beside themselves with laughter, Kim closing her eyes and throwing her head back. When she opened them again, they were in the familiar mansion of Señor Senior Senior and Señor Senior Junior. Senior sat at a long table, surrounded by what looked like ordinary toys.

"I have taken a leaf from Dr. Drakken's book, my son, and come up with the perfect plan," Senior explained to Junior, who sat reading a magazine in the chair next to him. "We shall distribute these seemingly ordinary toys to poor children across the world. Then when the red switches on the side are activated, we shall be able get inside the houses of thousands of people across the world and—!"

"Father, I have a confession to make," Junior chimed in, throwing the magazine aside and turning to his father.

"What is it, my son?" Senior asked. "Do you wish to contribute to my full proof plan?"

"No!" Junior exclaimed dramatically. "I do not want to make these evil toys!"

"Oh, well if that's all—_what?_" Senior said suddenly, facing his son. "You don't want to make evil toys? When then what _do _you want to do?"

"I have been reading up on potentially _evil_ professions, and I believe I have found the one for me," Junior said, setting the stack of magazines aside.

"And?"

"Well Father, someday…"Junior paused for suspense. "I'd like to be a—a dentist!"

"A dentist?!" Senior exclaimed in disbelief. "Oh, my son, why on _earth_ would you—?"

"Pulling teeth out of people's mouths, Father!" Junior said excitedly. "Can you imagine it? The pain, the agony—the _torture!_"

"Ah…I see your point," Senior said, tapping his chin in thought. "You wish to use this profession for dangerous acts. I am very proud of you for coming up with this all on your own! After the holidays, I shall immediately enroll you in dental school!"

"This _cannot _be real!" Kim exclaimed through peals of laughter.

"I only speak the truth," the spirit said, adjusting the Santa hat on top of her head. She waved her hand, and the Seniors' mansion disappeared. They now stood in the long terminal of an airport, where Kim recognized two of her archfoes. One was the shape-shifting heiress Camille Léon, about to board a flight to New York, and the other was the criminal and former Smarty Mart employee Frugal Lucre. He was sprinting at full speed with the cops on his tail, desperate to get to the terminal before Camille boarded the plane. He took a detour, evading the policemen, before finally reaching his destination.

"Camille!" Frugal cried out in his high, nasally voice. The blonde personality turned to face him, surrounded by body guards who cracked their knuckles lethally.

"Frugal?" she asked in a puzzled voice.

It looked as if the heavens had opened for Frugal; the sun seemed to dawn on his ecstatic face. "I—I thought you didn't know my name?"

"Of course I do!" Camille said, whipping out her compact and adjusting her hair. "We met and had dinner at that villain's convention."

"Oh Camille!" Frugal exclaimed happily, and to Kim's immense shock, he knelt down on one knee and took Camille's hands in his. "Ever since we met at that convention, I _knew _you were the woman for me! I love you, Camille Léon, and say you love me, too!" He glanced over his shoulder at the approaching cops, "Preferably quickly!"

Camille paused for a minute, apparently thinking this over. Then she smiled a million dollar smile, gently lifted him off his feet and gazed into his eyes—before slapping him across the face. "Are you, like, _completely insane_?! There's no way I could _ever _love a guy who lives on minimum wage!" She whirled on her heel and headed down the terminal. "Let's go, boys!"

"No Camille, wait!" Frugal shouted after her as the cops dragged him away.

"I almost feel sorry for him," Kim said.

"The key word there is _almost_," the spirit clarified, before they both burst into laughter again.

"Oh man," Kim chuckled, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. "I had no idea this is what my archfoes got up to when they aren't trying to kill me."

"Well, I wish we could keep this up," the spirit said, and Kim noticed for the first time that white and grey hairs lined the spirit's otherwise raven curls. "But my time is just about up…and there's one more person's Christmas we need to look at."

"Whose?" Kim asked, but the only answer she received was the ghost's familiar wave of her hand and haze of fog as they moved on to their final destination…

* * *

_Man, I shouldn't have ditched Steve, 'cause now I'm __freezing__!_ Ron thought desperately. He blew on his hands and rubbed them together, shivering in his sweater and jeans as he headed back the way he and the angel had originally come. During his trek, he glanced around looking for a familiar flash of fiery auburn hair, but so far had seen none. _If Kim really is working for Drakken and Shego, she's probably not here in Middleton_. He looked up at one of the shops and saw the familiar logo of Kim's favorite retail store, only now it read _Club Shego_. His fingers and toes now so numb he could not feel them, Ron pushed open the door and slipped inside.

Greeted by the warmth of the store's interior, Ron exhaled in relief and looked around. All of the shelves and racks contained the same item of clothing: a green and black cat suit. _Did Shego even consider how her 'look' might come across on a dude? _Ron thought as he curiously headed over to the men's department.

"We're closed!"

Ron jumped about ten feet in the air as the silence was suddenly broken by a barking female voice. Turning towards the front counter, he saw that he was staring into the angry face of Monique, Kim's best girl friend.

"Hey Monique!" he waved, walking up to the counter. "Sorry, I just slipped in to get warm—"

"I said we're closed, buddy!" Monique repeated sharply, slamming the register closed and locking it up for the night.

"Monique, it's me Ron!" Ron said, pointing to himself. "Ya know, Kim's best friend slash boyfriend—"

Hearing Kim's name only seemed to incite Monique even more. Her eyes positively flashed in his direction, "Are you not hearin' me, kid?! Get your skinny little behind outta this store! _We're closed!_"

"Alright! Alright, I'm going," Ron said, holding up his hands and heading for the door. He begrudgingly went back out into the freezing winter air, and saw Steve leaning against a lamppost.

"This is your last warning, Stoppable," Steve said, waving the air around him, and Ron felt the cold air around him rise to a comfortable room temperature again. "Don't run out on me again."

"I'm sorry, I just panicked in that club," Ron said, approaching him apologetically. "This is all just too much! First Felix, then Bonnie, now _Monique_!"

"Yeah, Monique's been having a tough time these past six months or so," Steve said as they resumed their walk. "But you need to understand—"

"I know, I've never been born so she doesn't recognize me," Ron recited, smacking a hand to his forehead. Why did he even bother telling her who he was?

"Well, yeah that," Steve said, "but something else, too. See, Monique was Kim's best friend through high school, so naturally Kim had her act as her sidekick on the missions. Like you, she wasn't very adept, but she always had Kim's back and even provided a good distraction here and there. When Drakken and Shego won, they took both girls prisoner. All of their crime-fighting endeavors were from then on in the name of the Supreme Rulers."

Ron sighed deeply and shook his head: Poor Kim and Monique, having to do whatever Drakken and Shego told them to, and not being able to do a thing against them. Then he stopped and looked up, his brow furrowed. He looked over his shoulder at the retail store and then back at Steve.

"Wait a sec…what's Monique doing working in a clothing store and not slaving away for Drakken and Shego right now?"

"Oops," Steve said half to himself, stopping dead in his tracks. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Uhh…well…that's a good question…"

"Steve." It wasn't a question, it was a demand. Ron walked up to his guardian angel and looked him straight in the eye, his face dead serious. He asked, ever so slowly and firmly, "Where…is…Kim?"

"Hold onto my arm," Steve said resignedly. Ron took hold of it, and felt himself spinning rapidly, as if he were on a carnival ride. They seemed to be flying a great distance at lightning speed, before coming to a halt on solid earth…

* * *

Kim recognized the front of her house, Christmas lights glowing brightly as they did every year. Her front door banged open and she saw Ron come storming out, shoving his hands deep into his coat pockets. She heard her own voice shouting from the doorway.

"Fine quit! I can do it all myself!"

"I wish I never even started _going _on these missions!" Ron yelled back at her, and now Kim could clearly see his face reddened in anger, an anger she rarely saw him express.

"_I wish I never even met you_!"

Kim cringed, closing her eyes silently. When she opened them again, Ron's anger had vanished, his demeanor changed completely. At that moment, he no longer looked like a young man, but rather the lost little boy she had witnessed in her memories earlier that night. He looked away from Kim in the doorway and walked slowly down the sidewalk, tears glistening in his eyes and threatening to spill down his cheeks.

"Look…people say things they don't mean," Kim said, turning to the spirit, whose hair was all grey now. "Sure, I say I can do anything, but I'm only human, and humans make mistakes!"

"While humans might say things they don't mean," the spirit said in a grave voice, "the damage is done. Those words left your lips, and you can't take them back. There's nothing you can do about it, girl."

Ron sniffled loudly, and Kim turned back to look at him. He stopped directly next to where she stood, and looked up to the sky. Kim pressed her hands to her heart as she saw the pain clearly etched on his face. _She _had caused that pain, and she couldn't believe it. "Oh Ron…" she breathed out in a whimper.

"I just wish that there was something I could do," Ron whispered in a choked voice, still looking up at the sky. "Anything…just to let Kim feel like she deserves a guy like me. I—I have to prove to her that I can measure up to her...that I'm as strong as she is. I _have _to…"

"Ron, I'm _sorry_!" Kim sniffled too as she reached out and tried to take his hand, only to feel empty air as it went right through his. "I'm _so_ sorry! You don't have to prove anything to me, Ron, you never have! I love you so much!" It killed her to not touch him, to feel nothing but air as she reached for him. She wanted to hold him to her, to dry his tears and assure him that everything was okay—but that hope was gone as he walked slowly away from her and down the street to his house.

"Time can only tell what kind of effect _your _words will have on _him_," the spirit said quietly as Kim stared after Ron.

"What does that mean?" Kim asked urgently. "How does this affect Ron—affect _us_?!"

"That's not my department, girl," the now white-haired spirit said, the swirling snow beginning to erase her figure from view. "And speaking of department…" A grim laugh escaped the spirit as she looked down at herself, fading from view. "Well…the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Be may be able to give you the 411."

"You mean…the future?" Kim asked in an almost dreaded tone, and the spirit nodded. She smiled and waved at Kim before vanishing completely, leaving Kim on the cold, snowy, and deserted street alone—well, seemingly alone. For at first, Kim was unaware of the figure in the shadows behind her house, watching her…

* * *

A/N: You guessed it: Kim's archfoes' Christmas activites were taken from some familiar media :) Drakken and Shego's was lovingly ripped from _A Charlie Brown Christmas_, as was the Seniors from _Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, _and Frugal and Camille's was based off a scene from the film _Love Actually. _Okay, the lawyers can stop swarming around my house now.

Please read and review!


	5. You Really Had a Wonderful Life

A/N: Chapter 5 of Kim and Ron's adventure is here. Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 5—You Really Had a Wonderful Life

The sensation of flying at lightning speed stopped mere moments after it had begun, and Ron felt it was safe to open his eyes. Steve had brought him some kind of castle; the sort of castle Ron would find in _Everlot _or some other game he had played with Felix or Zita. The sudden pick up in cold wind as well as the darkness enveloping the empty fields out beyond the fortress also told Ron that they were in the middle of nowhere.

"Wow, you had an impressive first ride there, kid," Steve said as Ron finally got his footing to stand up straight and let go of his angel's arm. "Most people vomit the first time."

"Excuse me," Ron said, moving out into the field, and Steve rolled his eyes looking away as he heard Ron retch loudly into the grass. A few moments later he reappeared, wiping his mouth on his sweater sleeve. "Okay…so where are we now?"

"The central nervous system of the whole jamboree," Steve replied. When Ron looked confused, he clarified, "Drakken and Shego's lair." And what a lair it was. The pointed towers and sculpture-like design reminded Ron of huge church, a dark, foreboding domain giving the impression that superiority resided inside.

"Let's move a little closer."

Ron nodded and made his way to the nearest side window and peered inside, scanning the room for his red haired girlfriend. He saw both of the so-called Supreme Rulers sitting at a long table for several people, even thought only two were present. An abundance of food littered the table; what had once been a lavish Christmas feast was now mostly eaten, as its consumers relaxed at the table. Drakken certainly did not look like himself anymore. He looked…_hot_. He wore a tight, black T-shirt to extenuate his muscled blue arms, his dark hair now much longer and swept back into a mullet worthy of his cousin, Motor Ed. Likewise with Shego, who sat snuggled up against him with a glass of wine. She was dressed in a long green and black dress, with a slit that came to a halt just under her hip, her long, pale legs propped up on the table as she laughed along with her partner.

"What a _night_!" Shego exclaimed, taking another long sip of wine and setting it on the table, amidst the eaten feast. "I gotta tell ya, you really outdid yourself this year, Dr. D."

"Only the best for my queen of the world," Drakken said, and Shego cringed.

"Ew, that was _corny_," she said, trying to sit up gracefully and accidentally spilling the glass of wine across the table. "Whoopsie."

"I'll have the maid get it," Drakken waved his hand dismissively, getting up and going over to a large safe built into the wall at the other end of the room. "We were lucky this year, Shego. To tell you the truth, I was afraid we weren't going to live to see another Christmas this year."

"But instead, that intergalactic war made us even more even _more _wealthy than we already were," Shego said with a grin, trying to lighten Drakken's suddenly somber mood. "Now we can have a _real _happy holiday!"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Drakken said, opening up the safe, and Ron's jaw dropped. It was piled full of stacks of green bills. "Who knew Lorwardian money amounted to so much in American cash?"

_Lorwardia?! _The word rang through Ron's head.

"Only 'cause you forced those aliens to give up every penny of their wealth after we beat 'em down in the end," Shego said, going up behind Drakken and slipping her arms around his waist. "Mmm…_so _glad we don't have to worry about the rest of the people on Earth now. It wasted _so_ much time."

"Agreed," Drakken smiled, "Being greedy is so much easier than being a _caring _world leader. Rallying up troops and all that, what a chore—"

"You gotta admit, those people had guts," Shego said, raising her head from his shoulder suddenly as this thought came to her.

"But we won!" Drakken pointed out. "None of that matters now."

"Hel-_lo_! Did you even _look _at the casualty list?!" Shego said, shoving him lightly. "Almost 300,000 _in North America alone_! Don't even get me started on Europe!"

"Since when do you care about casualties?" Drakken asked, rounding on her. "You're here, I'm here, and that's all that matters in the end!"

"Well—it's a lotta people!" Shego defended feebly, sitting down in a chair again and crossing her arms and legs. Drakken took a glass off the table and went up behind her, dangling the glass in front of her face playfully.

"How about I get us some more wine…and we continue this discussion _upstairs_?" Drakken said slyly, to which Shego's smile returned as she giggled and pulled his head down towards hers to give him a sloppy kiss on the lips.

Ron had seen enough. Well, not quite enough because Kim was still nowhere to be found. But after what he had just heard, that wasn't all that was probing at his mind as he walked back over to where Steve was standing casually. He hated the way Steve acted so cool-headed about all of this, and it was _really _starting to get to him.

"Alright Steve, spill."

"About what?" Steve asked innocently.

"What do you mean 'about what'?!" Ron cried out, somehow resisting the urge to hit him hard. "What was all that about the Lorwardians? What war?" He got up close to Steve's face.

"Are you sure you wanna know?" Steve asked him slowly.

"Note…serious…_face_"…

* * *

_Someone's here_. That was what Kim's instincts told her mere moments after the Ghost of Christmas Present had left her alone on the sidewalk in front of her house. Six years of crime-fighting had only heightened those impulses, and now she could practically _feel_ a pair of eyes boring into the back of her skull. She whirled around fast, assuming a fighter's stance as she stared around the side of her house.

"Alright, come out!" Kim said loudly. "Whoever you are, I know you're back there!"

"_Easy_, princess," came a familiarly cynical female voice. Kim's stance remained firm, if not strengthened as a tall woman wearing a solid black cat suit and a bottle green cape stepped out of the shadows. She swept her long, black hair away from her face and gave Kim a wide smirk, folding her arms across her chest. Kim was fully prepared to do battle with this woman—she had, after all, just fought her earlier that evening. But something clicked into place at the last moment, and she remembered what Monique had said moments ago, _The Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Be might be able to give you the 411. _She lowered her arms, staring at the figure before her.

"I'm gonna take a stab in the dark here—_literally_," Kim said, glancing up at the inky black sky above.

"Stab away," the woman said, the smirk firmly in tact.

"You're not really Shego," Kim said, recalling what had been repeated to her throughout the evening, "but actually the Ghost of Christmas Future."

"Wow, thanks pumpkin," the ghost said, taking a cell phone out of her pocket and checking the clock. "You saved me about five minutes of background info there."

"In a hurry?" Kim asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope, impatient," the ghost said, sticking her cell phone back into her breast pocket. "Now let's jet."

"Can't you just _tell_ me what happens?" Kim asked. She tried hard to keep the anxiety out of her voice, but after seeing the immediate after effects her words had had on Ron, her emotion showed glaringly

"Yeah, no…I'm more of a 'show-don't-tell' kinda ghost," Shego replied, but Kim noticed her smirk widen into a sly smile, almost mocking her saying "I know something you don't know." And she didn't like it one bit.

"Alright…just—_go,_" Kim said finally, gesturing with her hands. "Show me what happens, the cold hard facts. Don't sugar-coat it."

"Wasn't planning to," the spirit said, clamping a gloved hand roughly around her wrist and snapping her fingers with the other. The dark, snowy street vanished in a blinding green glow, and Kim shut her eyes to block out the intense light. The air suddenly grew very hot, as if a huge bonfire's leaping flames were surrounding her body. Almost as suddenly as it had come, the heat vanished and Kim took a chance and opened her eyes. She was almost relieved to find themselves standing by the escalators at the Middleton Mall, the area swarming with last minute Christmas shoppers, children whining as they waited in line to get there picture taken with Santa. In fact, absolutely nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Rather than granting Kim the warm glow of relief, the everyday manner of her surroundings only seemed to add to her curiosity. Something wasn't right, and she could feel it deep down in the pit of her stomach.

"Two years into the future and they haven't fixed up this dingy little mall _yet_?" Shego snorted as she looked around. Finally something caught her eye, "Here we go, Kimmie. Take a little gander over there." She jabbed a thumb over to a group of guys standing in front of _Sports Emporium_. Kim went over to get a closer look and recognized Brick Flagg and a group of jocks Kim used to go to high school with. Rather than loudly clowning around and whistling at the hot, passerby girls, they were talking, almost whispering in a tight-knit group with eachother. As she drew nearer, she could also pick up the somber quality of their tones.

"Well, I don't know much about it either way," Brick said quietly to the other guys, shaking his head slowly. "I only know he's _dead_."

Kim's heart stopped. _Someone died? '__He'__?_

"No _way_," the young man to Brick's left said. "When?"

"Like almost a week ago," Brick replied. "That's what the news said anyway."

"I can't believe how much publicity he's getting," a third guy in the group said, his voice lowering to a whisper. "It's probably more than he ever got when he was actually _alive_."

"It's all over the news, the papers, Twitter," the last guy said, counting off on his fingers. "I'll tell you one thing, that funeral's gonna be right up there with the King of Pop's!"

"Can you say 'live coverage'?" the second guy said. "CNN will be all over it."

"Guys, come on, get off the publicity for a sec and think about this," Brick said holding up a hand to silence them. "_We knew this guy_."

Kim nearly jumped out of her skin as the ghost that resembled Shego leaned in close to her ear from behind her. "Are you gettin' the picture yet?"

"Vaguely," Kim said in a quiet voice. A small, nagging conclusion to this mystery was growing in the back of her mind, but she refused to let it surface—because she refused to believe it was true. Shego exhaled loudly and rolled her eyes. Kim heard a snap of her fingers, and this time anticipated the blinding green light and hot wave of air that enveloped her again. Once again, she found herself standing in front of her house. The snow was gone, to be replaced with a cold, steady rainfall, and even stranger still, there was not one Christmas light or blown up Santa Claus to be found on her house, lawn or roof. _My God…what is going __on__?_

As she moved closer to the front window, she could see the glow of the big screen TV on in the otherwise semi-dark room. She could make out the CNN logo in the corner of the screen, as well as the image of a coffin covered with an American flag being carried by several men in black suits. But for the life of her, through the smeared, rain-drenched window pane, she could not make out any of the words on the screen, nor hear any of the words the reporter was saying. It grinded her to the core; if only she could get inside and seen the television, it would solve everything…

_Wait a minute! _Kim thought as a sudden idea came to her. She pressed her hand to the window pane, and it slid right through as easily as if nothing were there at all. _I'm not really here. They can't see me—I __can__ go inside!_ Standing up straight, she proceeded to walk through the window. No sooner had she gotten a clear look at the screen that it went black with a snap.

"I can't watch this anymore," came the exhausted voice of her mother, who sounded as if she had a horrible head cold.

_Dang it, Mom! _Kim thought with an air of defeat.

"Nice plan—too bad it didn't work," the spirit said, materializing next to Kim. The redhead gave her the hardest glare she could muster before looking back at the scene before her. Her mother set down the remote on the coffee table and in turn lifted from it a cup of tea and handed it to Mrs. Stoppable. She was seated on the Possibles' sofa with her husband on her left, a toddler-aged Hana asleep on his shoulder, and Kim's dad leaning against the sofa's right arm, his hand at his forehead as if trying to ease a migraine headache. The pit in Kim's stomach grew wider and heavier—Ron and herself were nowhere to be found.

"Thank you, Annie," Mrs. Stoppable said, sipping from the cup and setting it back on the table. She paused, then looked up at Kim's mother again, her eyes filling up with tears. "_Really_—thank you for everything."

Anne leaned over and embraced her tightly, "It's the least we can do." They broke apart after a few moments, and Ron's mother closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her mouth, struggling to regain control. When she had done so, she removed her glasses and dabbed at her eyes with a Kleenex.

"No parent should ever have to bury their child," she said, almost in a curt, emotionless voice. Her husband extracted one if his arms from around Hana and held his wife's hand tightly. A moment later, Jim and Tim entered the room, shuffling their feet and their hands deep in their pockets. They were both much taller and stockier, though they had never seemed so depressed before, sitting down on the floor and leaning their backs against the sofa.

"Boys, I thought you were playing video games to take your minds off things," Anne said, stroking Jim's hair on the top of his head gently.

Tim shrugged and said in a deep voice, "It's no fun when he's not here to cream us." He sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve while Jim hugged his knees to his chest, blinking back the tears glimmering in his eyes. Kim couldn't remember the last time she had seen her brothers so upset.

Anne bent down and kissed both of them on top of the head, "I'm proud of you boys. You've been so supportive and stayed so strong for your sister—"she swallowed hard before adding in a choked voice "—when she needed it the most."

"Annie, how's she doing?" Mr. Stoppable asked, leaning over to look at her. Anne sighed deeply and looked over at James, who removed his hand from his face.

"She hasn't left her room," he responded in a husky voice. "Not since she got the letter last week. She completely broke down, just crying and crying her heart out when she received the news. Annie and I couldn't do a thing, she was absolutely inconsolable."

"She won't talk to us," Mrs. Stoppable said, wiping her nose with the tissue. "Not even at the funeral."

"She blames herself…she thinks it's entirely her fault because of what happened Christmas Eve, two years ago," Anne whimpered, wiping her eyes as James put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "It was all we could do to get her to go to the wake and the funeral. Through it all, she just stared, sometimes at his body in the casket, sometimes just off into space, going through the motions like a zombie. She didn't cry…not one tear."

"And now she just won't leave that r—" James words were cut off by the loudest sound yet, coming from up the stairs on the second floor. There was no mistaking it—it was the abrupt, echoing, and swiftly decisive sound of a gunshot being fired. James and Anne stared at eachother, and in a flash all six of them were on their feet, pounding up the stairs and yelling Kim's name. Hana awakened in her father's arms and began wailing as she was carried up the stairs.

Kim couldn't breath, could barely even grasp what had just happened. She pressed her hands over her quivering lips as she heard her mother scream her name over and over. Amidst her haze of shock, one thought rose above all the others: There was only one thing in this world that would cause her to ever even consider taking a bullet to the head—and that thing was beyond unthinkable. The spirit looked at her, then moved her gaze to up on the stair landing, unfazed and unaffected by all that had just been exchanged.

"_Now_ you've got a pretty good picture," the spirit whispered eerily. "Looks like your whole future's crumbling around you." Once more, she snapped her fingers, and once more, Kim was caught off guard as the blinding green light ignited and brought them to yet another location…

* * *

"What are we doing here?!" Ron called out to Steve who was striding several feet ahead of him. "Why can't you just _tell _me what happened?!"

"We're gonna need a visual aid to go along with this, uh…little story I'm about to tell you," Steve called back over his shoulder. Ron heard that uneasiness in his voice again, the same tone he got whenever Ron persistently asked where Kim was. They were walking quickly up a steady incline of grass, the wind picking up as they moved farther away from the castle and out into the open field area behind it. After quite a few moments of silence, Steve stopped in front of a large black iron gate, and Ron could see what looked like hundreds of tombstones residing behind it. A sudden foreboding gripped at Ron's heart and squeezed it tight; he knew that whatever his guardian angel was about to tell him could not be anything good.

"We're at a…a graveyard, huh?" Ron said in the most casual tone he could possibly gather, his voice cracking.

Steve nodded, "Hang onto your pants, kid, you're in for a wild ride." He pushed open the creaky iron gate and gestured for Ron to go in ahead of him. Ron stepped through the gateway and looked around. He was wrong about one thing—there had to be closer to a _thousand _tombstones in this yard, stretching back into the fields as far as he was able to see. He looked down at the headstones closer to where he stood, trying to see if he recognized any familiar names.

"The war," Steve began, startling Ron as he looked around to face him, "that the Supreme Rulers were talking about was a pretty fierce one between Earth and planet Lorwardia. It began back several months ago when Drakken displeased the female alien warrior, Warmonga. He claimed to be—"

"'The Great Blue', yeah I remember all about that," Ron said, recalling the rather comical events that unfolded over Drakken being believed to be some kind of god. "Now let's get to the stuff that I _don't _know."

"Well as you already know, Kim defeated her when Drakken dug himself too deep into that hole. After that, Warmonga told her mate Warhok of Drakken's dishonesty and Kim's treachery. A few months later, war was waged on the entire planet. They brought in every warrior from their planet and invaded one warm night in June."

_Graduation_, Ron thought, nodding his head in understanding. The night he had tapped into the full force of his Mystical Monkey Power, saving the world and his girlfriend's life simultaneously. But…

"Okay, so…if I wasn't born…how did things go down?" Ron asked slowly, almost afraid of the answer.

"As you just saw, Drakken and Shego only cared about the fact that _they_ were in danger of being killed rather than the fate of the entire planet they ruled. In order to protect themselves, they called upon every able-bodied being on Earth to fight for the future of the planet. And every able-bodied person _did _show up on the battlefield—Kim was among them. Not that she had much of a choice; she _was _their prisoner after all."

_No, but she would've chosen to fight anyways_, Ron thought. Drakken or no Drakken, saving the world was what Kim did. She never saw it as a job or a chore, but rather something that she as a human being was obliged to do—to use her talents and abilities to fight for all that was right in the world. "So they won?"

"At a _high _price," Steve said, shaking his head. "Look around you, kid. These are just a _fraction_ of the casualties that stacked up all over the world. These graves are of those who fought closest to the home base, being the fortress of the Supreme Rulers. It might sound exclusive, but…" Steve trailed off, staring down the lines of gravestones far along towards the nearly invisible horizon, "you can get a good idea here of the fact that most people who fought against Lorwardia didn't come out alive."

Ron was shivering now, and he had a gut feeling that it wasn't from the cold…

* * *

"Alright honey, walk with me, talk with me," the spirit said to Kim as they strode up the sidewalk to where Kim knew Middleton Graveyard resided. "'Cause you know, of _course_, I have to explain _everything_!"

It was cold, that was for sure, but for Kim and the visions of her future flashing before her mind, the air felt positively glacial. The last vision of her family and Ron's had only confirmed that her suspicions were correct. But for some strange reason, even though the evidence in favor of her conclusion was overwhelming, she absolutely refused to believe it was true. She was a practical young woman, and nothing was real until she could see it and touch it with her own senses.

Kim hugged herself tighter and bowed her head, squeezing her eyes shut and then opening them again, as if trying to clear her head. "So disregarding whether I actually believe what we just saw or not, how did this happen? It's only been two years since—"

"Hey, a lot can happen in two years!" the ghost resembling Shego said, as they now walked through the gateway to the field adorned with tombstones. "And in you guys' case, a lot _did _happen." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Okay, here we go: you and blondie broke up not long after your little fight that Christmas Eve and tried to go back to being best friends, like before. Didn't work out so well, 'cause all you guys could ever think about were all the 'what-had-been's' and 'what'll-never-be's.' Short version, you were both miserable. But your ex-beau was ambitious—must come with the Monkey territory. Anyways, he made a promise to himself to—"

"—try and measure up to me," Kim finished, recalling what the spirit of Christmas Present had shown her. "He felt like he didn't deserve me, he didn't think he was as strong as I was." _He's the strongest person I know…how __thick__ could he possibly be?_

"Exactly!" the spirit said, waving a hand back at her. "Geez, why am I wasting my time telling ya, you know it all!"

"No, ju—go on," Kim said, striding to keep up with her, her hunger for information causing her to fall behind in step.

"Alright, so he wanted to find some way to show you that he could be as strong in combat as you are, that he could up his game in the field. So he joined the army."

"He did _what?!_" Kim cried out, stopping dead in her tracks, her shout echoing across the deserted graveyard.

"_Joined…the…army_," Shego said slowly, turning around to face her. "I _think_ I'm talkin' plain English here. So yeah, he joined right up, excelled through training and boot camp faster than most of the trainees, and within a year he was shipped out to just off the coast of Iraq."

"They sent him to _Iraq?!_" Kim was almost screaming now.

"Is there an echo out here?" Shego remarked sarcastically. "Yeah, he went to Iraq! Bear in mind, pumpkin, he did all of this _for you_." She emphasized the last two words by poking Kim in the chest with her index finger. "You were just horrified that he went to those lengths for you and regretted breaking up with him. Holy _crap_, talk about shallow. You don't regret breaking up with the dude until he's putting his life on the line."

Kim hung her head; she _could _be so shallow sometimes. She had grown up a lot since Ron had become her boyfriend, seeing the beautiful person he was on the inside. But still, she had her moments…

"So you wrote him a ton of letters, telling him that you were sorry and wanted him to take you back. Then he wrote you just as much back, saying that he never wanted to break up, he always loved you, he wanted to marry you—I got a look at some of those letters and I swear I felt like I was reading one of those god-awful vampire romance books—"

"_Moving on!_" Kim yelled impatiently, but her heart had fluttered for just a moment. _He wanted to __marry__ her…_

"—you couldn't wait for him to come home to you, and vice versa," the spirit rambled on, as if she hadn't heard Kim. "But your boy made it to the front line, right in the middle of it all, and fought like a true military dog. Just like they all do, before…"

"Before what?" Kim asked, the pit of apprehension in the center of her stomach becoming more pronounced…

* * *

"Steve, where's Kim?" The question was not asked even _remotely _politely. It was a growl, a sinister demand that said "Tell me, or else…"

"You're not gonna like it, Stoppable," Steve said, shaking his head. He barely had time to open his mouth again when Ron was upon him in a flash, grabbing him by the shirt collar and forcing Steve's eyes down to his level.

"I don't know how you know, and I don't _care _how you know!" Ron's grip on Steve's collar tightened closer to his neck, his eyes now flashing a bright, azure blue. "But you know…you've known the whole time! I held up my end of the deal! _Now where is she?!_"

"You're right," Steve said calmly, unfazed by the fact that the boy in front of him was about to unleash some mystical power on him. Barely exerting any strength, he unclasped Ron's fingers from his collar and pulled them away, staring down at his companion. "You did keep your end of the bargain." He walked a little ways off to a small cluster of gravestones. Ron remained where he was, breathing heavily as if he had just broken another Middleton High rushing record. "And I promised to show you where she was."

Ever so slowly, he raised his hand and pointed to one of the tombstones, covered in snow…

* * *

The spirit jabbed a thumb over at one of the tombstones, covered in snow, and all of a sudden, Kim's legs felt like Jello. She didn't want to go over there—she didn't want to see if she had been right or wrong. But she had to…for her own sake she _had _to. Panting, as if she had just battled twenty henchmen at once, she quietly approached the grave the ghost was pointing at…inching her way slowly.

"Okay, hang on a second," Kim said suddenly, whirling around to face the spirit. "Before I find out…who's name is on that stone…" She closed her eyes and swallowed hard, "just answer me this: Is this for _sure _what's going to happen in the future? Or is this just what _might _happen?"

The ghost shrugged simply, cocking her head in the grave's direction once more. Once again, Kim moved with the sense of walking through death's door ever closer towards the headstone…

* * *

_Please…__please__…don't let it be what I think it is_, Ron prayed silently, as he knelt before the stone Steve pointed at. For a moment he just looked at the snow-covered tombstone, not wanting to reveal the name hidden beneath. But almost moving against his own accord, Ron raised his hand to the cold surface and brushed away the snow.

He didn't get far—as soon as he saw those first three letters he knew the truth. The horrible truth that spelled out the fate of his beloved. With a great swipe of his hand, he exposed the entire name as a loud, anguished scream tore through his throat:

_Kimberly Ann Possible_

* * *

Kim bent down to level with the tombstone, staring at the snow that obscured the name from view. She took one last look at the ghost, who shrugged again, then gazed back at the stone. She raised a trembling hand and slowly began to brush away the snow.

_R-o-n—_

She didn't need to go any further…she knew. Through a thick haze of tears, she swept off the remaining snow, and read his entire name aloud before she collapsed to her knees, holding herself as she broke down completely:

_Ronald Adrian Stoppable_

* * *

"That's right!" Steve yelled, almost angrily. "That's the wonderful utopia that the world is now that Ron Stoppable never existed! Wow, what a bright idea _that _was!"

Ron wasn't listening; he was staring at Kim's name on the grave. She was gone…that was her destiny. She lived for a little while, and then just like that, she died fighting off a barbaric alien race. He pressed his forehead against the stone and closed his eyes. Kim was dead…it was so difficult to comprehend that her body was now lying six feet under the snow where he knelt. But there was no denying it. Steve was right…_he _had done this to her. Gripping the stone with his hands, he broke into tears, his shoulders heaving with his unbearable agony.

"You weren't there, were you Stoppable?" Steve snarled, shaking his head disgustedly. "You weren't there to save Kim from the Lorwardians with your Mystical Monkey Power. You've never once been self-centered towards her; you always put her before yourself…until tonight. Tonight, when you wished that you had never been born! _That_, kid, was the most selfish thing you have ever done in your life! You were so sure that things would be great once you weren't around—but in reality, it ended up costing you the one person in this world you love more than anything! You didn't do this for _her_, Stoppable! You did this for _yourself!_"

Ron wrapped his arms around the headstone and held it as if he were holding Kim's warm body against his, sobbing as if his heart would break, hot tears streaming from his eyes. _I did this…the one time I ever turned my back on her, after all these years, and now she's…_

"You _really _had a wonderful life, Stoppable," Steve said, in a quieter, less angry tone. "Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?"

He did…more than ever, that was exactly what Ron realized at that moment.

"Steve, get me back," Ron wept as he clutched the tombstone harder, choking on his sobs. "Get me back, I don't care what it takes! Just get me back to my family, my friends—get me back to Kim! Please Steve, I want to see her again! I want to live again! _I want to live again!_"

Steve looked silently up to heaven, and smiled warmly. _Well…how'd I do?_ As if in response to his question, he raised his arms with the snow swirling around him, his form fading away from view.

So lost in his anguish, and praying for his life, Ron didn't see Steve vanish and the snow begin to fall again, while the scene around him dissolved into nothingness…

* * *

"Oh c'mon, you knew it was him the whole time!" the spirit mocked Kim as the normally calm and collected teen heroine lost complete control. She sobbed heavily, her face buried in her hands, her long mane of red hair hiding her from view.

"I did!" Kim gasped out between sobs, tears seeping from between her fingers and dripping to the ground. "I knew it was him, but still—there was this small part of me that wished I was wrong!" She looked up at the ghost, her eyes red and her face drenched in tears. "Please, I never wanted this! I didn't mean it when I said I wished I'd never met him! I—I never imagined that he would do all of this just to get himself killed in the end! Just _please _tell me that I can prevent all of this from happening—that my future can be changed!"

"You made your bed, princess," the spirit said, shaking her head. "Now sleep in it."

"No!" Kim screamed, turning back to the gravestone. Leaning forward, pressing her forehead against the cold, hard stone, she whispered, "Ron, I'm sorry. I promise if I ever get a chance to go back, I'll make things right between us. I won't be so hard on you if you screw up on a mission again. I won't take advantage of you and your strength and devotion—because I need you." She paused, gulping through sobs, "I love you…I love everything about you, and I know now that it's the little faults that you have that make me love you even more. I need to go back to you and set things right, because you _can't just die on me like this! You hear me?! Don't you dare leave me like this!_"

A warm mist surrounded where Kim was kneeling, swirling her and the scene before her into a jumble of sights and sounds. The cold sense of the tombstone against her forehead disappeared, the warm air comforted her body in a way she could not explain, almost as if a burden were being lifted away from her…all before the sensation stopped, and she opened her eyes, seeing sunlight streaming in through a window…_her _bedroom window.

* * *

A/N: Whew! What an evening these two have been through. There will be a final conclusive chapter coming soon, so it looks like I'll meet my personal deadline after all.

Please read and review!


	6. God Bless Us Everyone

A/N: At last, the heart-warming conclusion to Kim and Ron's journey. Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Chapter 6—God Bless Us Everyone

Sunlight, pure warm sunlight poured through the Stoppables' attic window, bouncing off the walls and hitting the floor where Ron still knelt—the same position he had been in inside that terrible graveyard. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked around. It was not just a storage attic anymore, but a bedroom. _His _bedroom. Everything was there: his pillow, clothes thrown everywhere, his nightstand with Kim's senior picture framed on it, _everything_.

Ron whipped around when he heard a squeaky yawn coming from his pillow, and saw Rufus once again, his pink hairless pet stretching and smiling at his master sleepily. He jumped up from the floor and leapt onto the bed, causing the mole rat to fly into the air, where Ron caught him in his hands.

"Rufus! You're back, buddy!" he said happily, hugging him to his cheek which Rufus patted affectionately with a confused, "Back?"

"He did it," Ron said quietly, looking around and once again confirming that all was as it should be. "I can't believe it! Steve brought me back! Ah—_booyah!_" With Rufus following behind him, Ron rushed down the stairs to the bathroom, splashed cold water on his face to wake himself up and ran down to the first floor. His parents were already up and about making breakfast, even though their offices were closed for the holidays.

"Well good morning, Ronnie!" Mrs. Stoppable said brightly, flipping over a pancake on the indoor griddle. "Feeling better?"

"Better?! Are you kidding me?!" Ron said gleefully, kissing her on the cheek as he grabbed a muffin off the table. "_You_ know who I am! _Dad_ knows who I am! It doesn't _get _much better than this!"

"Ronald, um—as glad as I am that your not upset anymore," Mr. Stoppable said, setting down his coffee and scratching his neck confusedly, "I have no idea what you're talking about. What's all this about us _knowing _you?"

"Dad, I had the _craziest _dream, it—!" He stopped, shaking his head, "No, there's no way it was a dream, it was too real! But I had never been born, and everything was so different and awful, mom and Felix and Kim—!" He gasped, "Oh my gosh, _Kim_!" His hand flew to his pocket, and he felt it. Kim's promise ring—he pulled it out and held it tightly in his hand, laughing out loud. "It's here! It's back, everything's back!" _And that means Kim is alive!_ he thought to himself.

"Ronald, are you _sure _you're alright?" his father asked, staring at him carefully.

"I'm fine, Dad, really, I'm better than fine!" Ron said, moving across the kitchen to hug both his parents tightly. "But I've gotta go over to Kim's right now, make sure she's alright."

"Why wouldn't she be alright?" Mrs. Stoppable asked, her brow furrowing. "Ronnie, what on earth—?"

"I'll explain it all later, Mom, I promise," Ron said hastily, throwing on his coat and heading out the front door. "See you later!" And he slammed the door shut behind him, leaving his parents more confused than ever. Seconds after the door had shut, the Stoppables' could have sworn they heard a loud "_Yay!"_ coming from their front yard.

* * *

As quickly as she had fallen into them, Kim whipped off the covers and ran to her bedroom window. It was morning, she couldn't believe it, and she had made it back home. That nightmare that was her future was gone, and now she was left in the present, safe and sound in her room amongst her familiar possessions. Inexplicably, she started to laugh as relief finally overcame her—_it was over_. Barely thinking clearly, she put on her slippers and raced down the stairs to the living room. Her parents sat together on the sofa with cups of coffee while Jim and Tim broke into the wrapped boxes under the tree.

"What day is it?" Kim asked, looking at her parents.

"Kimmie, what—?"

"_What day is it?_" she repeated.

"Uh _Christmas,_" Jim said, opening up a brand new iPod.

"_Duh_," Tim added, unwrapping a laptop computer.

"_Yes!_" Kim exclaimed so loudly that everyone jumped. Pumping her fists, she did a high cheerleader leap into the air before landing back on the floor. "I didn't miss it! Those spirits—they did it all in one night!"

"They _sure _did," Tim muttered as Jim made a drinking motion with his hand.

"Oh, you _guys!_" Kim cried affectionately, and before the twins knew it, she had bent down and enveloped them both in her arms. "Thank you so much!"

"Ew, _ew_, what is wrong with you?!" they exclaimed together, trying to brush her off.

"What are you thanking them for?" her father laughed. "You haven't even opened their gifts for you yet."

"I…um…I'm—thanking them in advance," Kim covered up with a short laugh. Some things were just better left unsaid, and the events that Kim had experienced the previous evening were among them. She knew it had not been a dream; it had been too real, too vivid. She could still feel the cold on her skin, see the mist that the spirits had engulfed her in—and remembered most of all her feelings. All of the joy and sorrow from the past, present and future were as fresh in her mind as they were in the moments in which they occurred. She was back in the present, and her future lay ahead of her. A future that could be changed, that lay entirely in the choices she made that day. _Shego, wherever you are…I owe you one __big__ time._

With another laugh, Kim went into the kitchen and turned up the radio, where Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" blared out into the living room. The longer she listened to the song, its lyrics rang true in her mind: there was only one thing, or rather one _person _she wanted right now. And she knew what she had to do at that moment, before anything else got in her way. Rushing past her brothers, she ran upstairs and threw some clothes on, hastily washing her face in the bathroom. Coming back downstairs, she put her coat on and flung the front door open.

"Kimmie, don't you want to open your presents?" Anne asked, getting up from the couch.

"Later!" she called. "Gotta find Ron!" And the door shut with a snap, leaving the Possibles more confused than ever.

* * *

"Hello Middleton!" Ron called out at the top of his lungs, running down the freshly plowed sidewalk, happier than he could ever remember. He existed, Ron Stoppable existed in this world again, and what a wonderful world it was. Never before had he appreciated his hometown exactly the way it was, from his neighborhood to the downtown area his blissful jog was taking him to. He passed by several stores in his hasty race to Kim's house, and not one Shego logo was in sight.

"Merry Christmas, mall!" he shouted happily. "Merry Christmas, movie theater! _Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Bueno Nacho!_" With a right hand salute to his all time favorite eatery, Ron made his way out of town and into the neighborhood. So distracted was he that he ran head first into a tall, buff figure shoveling snow on his sidewalk. Jumping backward, Ron looked up at the familiar man before him.

"Hey, watch where you're goin', Stoppable," growled Mr. Barkin. "You don't own the sidewalks ya know!" He was thrown completely off guard as Ron grabbed his former teacher and coach into a huge bear hug.

"Thanks, Steve! Thanks so much for _everything_!"

"Steve? Since when are we on a first name basis, _Ron_?" Barkin emphasized the last word clearly, and Ron pulled back. Wrinkling his nose, he shook his head rapidly.

"Yeah, just—don't call me Ron again. _Still_ wrong-sick."

"Beat it, Stoppable, before I make _you _shovel my yard!" Barkin said loudly.

"Will I get paid?" Ron asked, rubbing his hands together hopefully.

Barkin glared down at him with eyes that could reduce a glacier to nothing but water.

"I'll take that as a _no_," Ron said with a nervous laugh, and took off down the street. He had way more important things to do right now.

"_Merry Christmas, Mr. Barkin!_" he yelled over his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, happy new year to you," Barkin grumbled back before resuming his task—yet he couldn't help a small smile from crossing his face.

* * *

"Monique?" Kim said into her phone as she walked briskly towards Ron's house. "Hey, Merry Christmas!"

"Back 'atcha, girl," Monique said, and Kim could here the crinkling of wrapping paper in the background. "Get anything good?" she asked.

"Mom must've _cleaned out_ the Super Club Banana in Denver!" Monique said with a squeal. "This is the most spankin' Christmas ever!"

"Glad to hear it," Kim replied. "Listen, I'm so sorry about not making it to the party last night, I really am. And I'm totally prepared to make it up to you."

"Kim it's all good, you don't have to—"

"No, I _want _to," Kim insisted. "How 'bout this: New Year's Eve Couples' Party at my place. That way I can't back out."

"Rock _on_, girlfriend! Why didn't _I _think of that?!" Monique exclaimed so shrilly that Kim had to hold the phone a few inches away from her ear. "Couples' party, New Year's Eve—_endless possibilities_!"

"Totally," Kim agreed with a sly grin. "Come on over to my place tomorrow and we'll start planning."

"Sounds great," Monique said. "See you la—"

"Oh wait a sec!" Kim said before she hung up. "Just…thanks _so_ much."

"For what?" Monique asked.

"Oh, you know," Kim said, nodding. "Take care."

As Monique hung up, she stared for a few moments at the cell phone in her hand. "I _know_…?"

* * *

Rounding the corner to the high school, Ron became aware of someone calling his name distantly. Staring down the sidewalk, he saw a figure waving and running towards him, her mane of long read hair flying behind her wildly. _Kim…_

"KP!" Ron cried, breaking into a sprint across the sidewalk in front of the school. "KP! _Whoooooaaaaa!_" His foot snagged on a slick, icy patch on the sidewalk that had escaped the salt somehow. Sliding fast upon the surface, his fall was finally broken by a large pile of snow next to the sidewalk, obviously having been plowed aside the previous evening. Landing face first, he heard laughter coming from behind him. Rolling over onto his back, he saw Kim standing there with her hands on her hips, just like last night. But this time, a wide smile lit up her beautiful features.

"Have a nice trip?" she asked.

"Just makin' a Ron Stoppable grand entrance," Ron said, wiping snow out of his hair. He made to get up from the pile of snow, but was forced back down suddenly as the wind was knocked out of him. In a whirlwind of auburn hair, Kim had leapt on top of him and flung her arms around his neck, hugging him so hard he could barely breathe. But it didn't matter, because Ron was holding her just as fiercely, inhaling her strawberry scented hair deeply as it fell over his face. "So…you forgive me?"

Kim pulled back slightly and looked at him lovingly, his face pink from the cold and his brown eyes as sparkling and enchanting as they had ever been. Still not saying a word, her long hair hiding their faces from view, she lowered her head closer to his as their lips met, for the first time in a long while. Passion grew as she found herself kissing him harder, but she couldn't help it. Ron was here, alive and well, proving that she had been right, and the shadows she had seen were only what _might _have been. It was probably freaking him out that she was coming on so strong like this, throwing herself on him and now playing a fervent game of tonsil hockey with him. Or maybe not…for he was kissing her just as eagerly as she was, crushing her against him like she was his last lifeline. They broke apart several long minutes later, and Kim finally got off of Ron so they could both stand up, brushing the snow off of eachother.

"You're here…you're real, you—you're _really here_!" Ron said, his arms still firmly encircled around her waist. He was afraid to let her go, afraid that if he did that what Steve had shown him would come true…that she would be taken away from him forever.

Kim furrowed her brow slightly at him, "Yeah, I'm here, where else would I be?"

"Oooh, don't ask," Ron said half to himself; the image of that tombstone with her name on it would probably haunt him for the rest of his life. What he didn't know was that a similar grave bearing _his _name had utterly frightened the presumably fearless woman in front of him.

"Ron, I…I don't know how to tell you how sorry I am about last night," Kim said, looking at the ground and shaking her head. "I don't care how bad you messed up, I don't care if you blew up the stinkin' White House! You did _not _deserve to hear all those horrible things from me. I'm sorry I ruined the casserole, I'm sorry I threw you out of the house—" her voice caught in her throat as she reached up to cup his cheek in her hand, her lower lip quivering—"Ron…I'm _so _sorry that I said I wished we never met. I swear I didn't mean it, but I know I can't take it back now 'cause it's done. It's in the past…and all I can do now is hope that somehow, in the goodness of that pure heart of yours, you can forgive me."

Ron held her face in his own large hands; she closed her eyes and savored his touch as he gently kissed both her cheeks, her forehead, and briefly on her lips. "Does that answer your question?" he whispered, his goofy grin plastered across his face. But as quickly as it had come, it faded, "You were right though—I _did_ screw up, and I'm gonna go to Global Justice after the holidays and set everything straight. I'm so sorry I wasn't more careful, I'm sorry I blamed it all on Drakken, and I'm sorry I yelled at you about the casserole. But…" He paused, "Kim, what you said last night _really _hurt. I thought…we were over for good, and I went home feeling sorry for myself." Now it was his turn to look down, the last of what Steve had told him pushing to the forefront of his mind, "But I did the most selfish thing of all last night. I told you I quit going of the missions, and I spent last night wishing that I had never been born…that I never came into your life at all."

"Ron…" Kim said in a hushed voice, but he put a finger to her lips.

"I know—I know now that it was totally stupid," Ron continued, "Think about it…if I hadn't been there, you'd be Warmonga's personal trophy right now." Kim nodded solemnly; she would never forget that as long as she lived. She remained silent as Ron took a deep breath and looked directly into her eyes. "When we started out on these missions, back when we were just kids, I made a promise to myself: that I would always have your back and protect you no matter what…and I'm never going to break it again. And speaking of promises…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out the gold ring with the tiny emeralds embedded around it, and Kim inhaled sharply. Ever so gently, he took her left hand and slipped the ring on her finger, Kim covering her mouth with her other hand.

"I love you," Ron said quietly. "I always have. As long as I can remember, you've been a part of my life, and I've been a part of yours. And…I wanna seal it now. I'm ready to totally and permanently be committed to you." He swallowed hard, "I wanna be with you for the rest of my life…and I hope, with all my heart that you feel the same way." He looked into her eyes and smiled, "Merry Christmas, Kim."

That did it. There was no avoiding the countless emotions welling up in Kim's heart, and they all came spilling out as she burst into tears. Not only had Ron forgiven her, but he had just confessed his undying love for her and given her such a stunning ring to prove it. And why? She was a stubborn, hot tempered perfectionist, who in the last twelve hours nearly let go of the one person she could never live without. She had hurt him so badly, and yet here he was—still so in love with her, _still_ so resolutely dedicated to her, it was enough to break the heart of the most stone-hearted woman alive. What in the world had she done in her life to _deserve_ a guy like him? She felt two long arms wrap around her as Ron held her close, gently stroking her hair. Bringing her arms around his waist, she continued to sob into his jacket, thoroughly soaking it in her tears. Feeling Ron's chest heaving against hers, Kim realized that he was crying as well and she tightened her hold on him.

"Don't cry, Kim," he said, letting his own tears fall into her hair. "Please don't…I can't stand it when you cry." For some reason, this only made Kim cry harder and he kissed the side of her head. "Shh…_shhhhhh_, it's okay…"

"I'm sorry," Kim whispered, choking back sobs as she raised her head from his shoulder, wiping her face on her sleeve. Gazing into his tear-filled, puppy-dog brown eyes, she drew in a shaky breath. "It's just that…you don't know how close things came to _not _being okay."

"Believe it or not, I do Kim," Ron replied—as he spoke, two sides of his mind were waging war. Should he tell her? _Everything_? Or shouldn't he? There was no way in heck she'd believe him even if he did tell her.

Kim opened her mouth, then closed it again. She did this several times, and still could not make up her mind. Tell him…or don't tell him? Who knew what kind of effect telling him would have if she revealed his potential future.

"Ron?"

"KP?"

For the longest time, they just stood there and gazed at eachother. Each desperately wanted to tell the other…but something in the back of their minds told them _no_. As much of a habit it had become for them to tell eachother everything, this was the one thing that they decided, as one, not to disclose to eachother. They had made amends, and that was good enough for them. How each of them had come to this point would, and should for the best, continue to remain a mystery to the other.

"I, um…" Kim began, then after a few moments just sighed. With a smile, she gazed down at her ring then back up into Ron's eyes. "I do."

"You _what_?!" Ron cried out with a yelp, looking from the ring to her. "Whoa, take it easy KP, one baby step at a time!"

"No, not _that _'I do'!" Kim laughed. "I mean _I do _want to be with you." Their now salty lips met briefly, "For the rest of my life."

"_Booyah_," Ron breathed, cupping his hand behind her head and kissing her neck tenderly. Pulling back, he jerked his head over her shoulder, "What d'ya say we head home? We can walk the _long _way through the park."

"If I were you," Kim said slowly, a wicked smile unfurling across her face. "I'd run."

"Why?" Ron asked, thoroughly confused, but not for long. Before he had time to react, a snowball smacked him in the face. Blinking the water from his eyes, he saw Kim grinning evilly and balling up another one quickly from the snow pile. "Oh, you picked the wrong day to mess with the Monkey Master!" Ron called as he chased her towards the park.

It would be a long while before they finally did reach home, but neither cared in the slightest. They had eachother for company, as Kim knew that they always had since preschool, and they always would until death did them part. Which now, they both knew would not be for many, many years to come. For as Ron now understood, _no man is a failure who has friends…_

_And God Bless Us Everyone…_

* * *

A/N: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a wrap! Hope you all enjoyed my take on the classics as much as I enjoyed writing it. And I ALSO hope everyone has a spectacular Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc and a Happy New Year! See you all in 2010 for future fan-ficcing!


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